- I Am The Media Monkey -

Going Away

2009-11-02T09:07:00.000Z

Hi all

I'm not going to be posting on here for a while as I work out what exactly I want to do with the blog. I read so many PR blogs and care for very few. I want to try and break away from this and do something a bit more fun and interesting for you the reader.

Best,

James

Money for nothing, the Standard for free!

2009-10-05T22:01:00.002+01:00

Last week, after over 180 years as a pay-for paper, the Evening Standard newspaper decided to move to a free paper format. I think this is a pretty extraordinary and somewhat baffling move.

The Financial Times group currently charge for online content, and Rupert Murdoch's News International group are set to move to a subscription based fee format. The Guardian has also just announced it is developing an iPhone application that will have a fee attached to it, that will allow you to access news and features from its website on the go. So, it does raise the question why The Evening Standard is taking this step. For sure it will certainly increase its dwindling readership (currently sub 250,000 – predicted to rise to 600,000), but advertising revenues are not what they were, especially in print media and I doubt they will cover revenue lost from sales (believed to be around the £10m figure).

I'm by no means comparing The Standard to Metro or London Lite, it certainly has a far higher quality of editorial, but I can't see that being a big enough selling point to advertisers.

I’m fascinated to find out...
Are they prepared to potentially switch back to a paid for format?
How much of the paper will be dedicated to advertising over editorial?
Will it create material specifically for online (and online advertisers) to draw people from the free paper?
Will it move to an earlier release to compete with Metro?
Will editorial policy be affected by advertising?

Its always exciting, inspiring even, to see someone step out from the crowd and make a bold move. However, you have to question the sanity of its owner, Russian billionaire, Alexander Lebedev. In an increasingly competitive media sector, with almost all national media assessing the viability of charging for editorial content (be it online or print), this really makes very little sense.

I genuinely hope I'm proven wrong, but I think by this time next year, The London Evening Standard will be confined to the great big recycling bin in the sky, along with its fellow city sheet, The London Paper. Watch this space!

The Next Stage of Brand Management For PR

2009-05-20T21:00:00.003+01:00

This weeks copy of PR Week includes news of a poll of 100 in-house PR and marketing professionals. The research by McCann Erickson Bristol revealed that 46% of those surveyed were unable to actually access social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn whilst at work. This truly staggers me.

Perhaps its just me, but surely even the most introverted of in-house PR/marketing staff must see the need to have access to such sites. Countless articles are written each day on the importance of online brand awareness, and the requirement to monitor conversations involving your companies name. Its no longer a nicety, its a necessity. For the sake of your companies brand awareness, surely its worth a conversation with your IT department, no?

The research comes within days of news that Google has inadvertently opened the door to a PR minefield. The search giant has begun trialling a new function that allows public comments on search results.

Whilst on paper this might not sound like a big deal, for organisations and their PR deparments, it opens the door to public criticism on a grand scale. It's the equivalent of Google leaving spray cans outside the glasshouse that is an organisations brand. Recent comScore research shows that Google accounts for 64% of all searches on the Internet. With that in mind, imagine the damage a derogatory comment underneath your companies listing on Google could have to potential new customers, staff etc.

On the other hand, positive comments will obviously reflect more kindly on your business. In all honest though, how often do the public lavish praise on a business when it does something right? It's more often that not expected. We're far more inclined to moan when things go wrong, or perhaps that's just me?

Newspapers - Where does the future lie?

2009-04-02T21:39:00.008+01:00

In the last six months, near on 1000 journalists have been made redundant. The last month alone has seen several regional papers slide close to disappearing and over the pond in the US, the Chicago Sun-Times collapsed. The latter, however, was mainly due to the legal costs involved during former owner Conrad Black's fraud trial.

For years now we've seen the sales of newspapers dwindle as more and more people read their news online, but it’s the Sunday's that seem to be taking the brunt. Sales of The Independent on Sunday were down nearly a quarter this January, when compared with the last.

With advertising spends for businesses significantly reduced, if not removed altogether, it does leave a few questions in my mind as to the future of the newspaper industry. Where will it go next? How will it monetise itself? Will it even exist? Working in public relations, it’s interesting to see how, despite the blatant rise of online media and its ability to syndicate news at a frighteningly quick pace, clients still think of it as a lesser format than print. Obviously it’s nice to hold a piece of coverage in your hands, but surely we've evolved enough to realise the true value of coverage online?

An article posted online is likely to be syndicated on other sites, especially given the tie-ups with media houses these days. Better yet, you're more likely to be blogged about, carrying your news further and for longer. When you add to the mix that it will always be online as a reference point for sales staff, potential new clients and even new staff (should the recruitment doom lift anytime soon). I think The Guardian released research a few months ago to say that the average new story was viewed more six months after it was first published. Pretty staggering I think. In March, The Guardian launched Open Platform (OP). OP is a range of services to enable developers to build applications and access Guardian content, with little or no cost involved. Whilst this isn't radical - The BBC has backstage and the NY Times was the first open up its doors I believe - its an important moment. I'm intrigued to see if this is the future of newspapers. The potential benefits for The Guardian are huge.

By opening its doors, it has created new, outsourced marketing teams for their content. What does this mean? Well, every application built using Guardian data will have different audiences, although there will be some crossover. This means that new audiences will see Guardian content. These are people who previously may not have bought a newspaper or visited the online site. Those who already visit The Guardian website will benefit as new apps will pop up on the site and enhance their experience. On the BBC website, apps have popped up all over. On the Football section of the Sport pages there is now a Football News widget – a cracking start, albeit a bit basic. To see more about the possibilities for this, have a look at notes from the hack day in November.

From a PR point of view this is great news. Articles featuring your clients will go to new audiences and have a limitless extended reach. Now all you need to do is get in the nationals regularly ;-) Will newspaper websites charge to read the news? Will you be charged to download viewers for your desktop or your smartphone? Or even e-book readers? Sony evolved this technology with Kindle and has got closer to the mainstream with Kindle2, but it’s still not there yet is it? The FT and The Economist already charge you to view online content direct on the site (through RSS aggregators, it can still be accessed for free). This bold move helped contribute to a profit increase of 13% in the last financial year. What will happen next I really don't know, but as I write this another publication has halted print production.

Lads mag, Maxim, has decided to stick to online content from next month, putting more jobs at risk.

Its a bleak time for newspapers, but there is hope!

Twitter -Twits, tweets and twats...

2009-02-21T08:55:00.008Z

As the weeks go by, the microblogging site Twitter gets more and more press coverage. It's well past a tipping point now in the UK, we're in full blown commercialism!

I think its fascinating how quickly the media and public relations sectors have adopted to this highly useful social media tool. Obviously digital media journalists would be first to try out such a new technology, but I think the speed at which public relations pracitioners have jumped on the bandwagon is to the industries credit. I know alot of people in the industry, myself included, have been using it for a year or more, but its great how this flood of PRs has been joined by a flood of journalists, journalists who now accept a tweet as a valid method of communication. It really has changed the game of pitching. The Guardian's Charles Arthur welcomes pitches via tweets saying, "it's good - more direct, more quickly dealt with, less distracting than a phone call". (Sorry if this leads to an influx Charles - it might cut down the annoying phone calls!).

Twitter is now flooded with 'social media evangelists', 'web 2.0 gurus' and the like. There is though, real opportunity to provide business value for your clients by carefully sifting through the large amounts of sicophantic, narcissitic BS. I'm not going to spell out how for free, because thats the stuff other agencies are just thousands to reveal to their clients.

Over the last month I've been getting my clients involved more in social media and I'm now getting bored of the phrase. Has anyone else got any other suggestions for what we can call it? Web 2.0 actually makes me heave, so thats a no-go too. Bobbie Johnson at The Guardian wrote about a similar topic recently.

This might sound like a petulant whim, but I think its currently important to distinguish the difference between print, digital and social media until we (as an industry) can get our clients to fully understand the individual merits of coverage in each. One thing is clear, there is no single golden rule to how you should carry out a social media project with your client - it was always be adaptive and different.

With this in mind, it made me smirk when I read on the PR Week website that Escherman is claiming that a new guide it has produced, "can help businesses to 'dramatically improve online PR campaign effectiveness'." Pardon me for being a little sceptical about this and its REAL effectiveness....

To end this post I'm going to hand over to Hermione Way and the Techfluff.tv team. I wasn't able to attend Twestival last week, I bought the ticket, got the t-shirt, but on the day it became clear I wouldn't get there in time, maybe next time?

Here's the Techfluff crew:

Video killed the spokesperson?

2009-02-03T17:06:00.008Z

In my last post, I questioned whether the press trip was dead. Now I’m going to look at whether journalists (writing for print and online media) will ever really need to speak with spokespeople for quotes* or if canned written/video comment will suffice.

*I'd like to point out I realise for broadcast and for topical stories that you try and 'piggy-back' there is a need, but for pre-planned releases and announcements.

As some background to this, I think I should explain what brought up this question. As you know I work for a PR agency and we’re developing a digital and social media product for our clients. Now I’m not sure how many of you have seen a social media release before, so here is a rough template of how they look:

And some live examples:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_012709.html
http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=11186

In short it’s a one-stop shop for all content a journalist or blogger might need to put together an article, without clogging up their inbox as its hosted online on the clients website. It also serves a whole other purpose by being online 24/7 and available to customers directly, not just influencers such as journalists, analysts and bloggers.

Such new fangled approaches to delivering news and content do potentially remove the need for journalists to speak to your client spokespeople and customers/case studies. Especially if there is an intelligent, impartial VOD or podcast of them being interviewed available online.

If PR is getting with the times (and I know a lot of agencies already provide these releases), is it shooting itself in the foot too by providing all the information upfront?

This point really excites me because it leads us on to another topic I love, showing the value of PR to your client. We all know that PR influence doesn’t begin and end at getting print coverage in a newspaper or magazine. The Internet revolution made sure of that. Now with so many publications having daily news feeds and posting articles online, bloggers and other influencers writing online only, we’ve taken electronic clipping onboard - even if some clients can’t see past getting in the FT!

Should we now be educating our clients and telling them that its not just about an article appearing in print or online. Its about whether a journalist discusses them in a tweet, saves a press release in del.icio.us, signs up for their direct RSS feed, how much time they spend on the clients website having looked at a social media news release (click throughs etc) and of course where they are placed by Google in their search rankings. I whole heartedly believe we should. At Octopus we are already beginning this process.

In the last week I had two clients quoted / mentioned on twitter by BBC journalists. I was chuffed to bits and the clients, when I explained, were over the moon too. Especially as I pitched one of the briefings via a DM on Twitter!

So when we start using these new technologies, I think we need to accept we’re not going to get 5-10 press briefings with a spokesperson for instance. A journalist with little spare time (i.e. most at the moment!) isn’t going to want to speak to a spokesperson for comment if they’re already able to get a canned comment from a social media release. Or are they? Let me know what you think…

Going back to press releases and social media news releases for a minute, I tweeted about a similar point a month ago and asked, ‘how do you like to receive press releases and information?’ I received some really mixed responses from some journalists, including:

A technology journalist replied with: @jwarnette Press releases: all the text in the body of the email. Meaningful subject line. No PDFs, no pix, no Word docs to open. Simple

A media/webdesign journalist responded: @jwarnette Include the full release, make sure it's plain text, and never - I repeat NEVER - just put 'See attached Word document’

A national consumer journalist wrote: @jwarnette short email with link but please don't call to check that I got it!

A business writer added: @jwarnette brief, scannable email with a link, but needs to be enough info in the email to help me decide if I want to click.

To any journalists reading this, I’d be interested to know what you think of social media releases. If you could spare two minutes, please click the link below:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Vhdb5ef0Ttfx0omuHo_2f7FA_3d_3d

Is the press trip dead?

2009-01-12T20:02:00.001Z

One of my clients is conducting a press trip to Europe for a few days and whilst the topics are bang-on the news agenda and there are various event-based exclusives happening, journalist take up has been somewhat slow. This was unusual and so I delved a little deeper.

Earlier today I was speaking to a friend-come-journalist, who writes as a staff writer for a well-known technology publication. Their response to my pitch was, “If we had more staff, I’d love to make it over there – I just can’t justify leaving the team short at the moment, we’re really stretched”.

Next up I spoke to another journalist who I regard as having an honest and fairly strong relationship with. They regularly write for the nationals and are highly thought of in media circles. This conversation brought up another highly valid reason. When I pressed them as to why they weren’t biting my hand off for a fully paid, three day jaunt in Europe, they replied, “This sounds really great, but I can’t just take a day or two out of my schedule for news that is only going to be put in a press release”.

Now I realise you might be thinking, “he’s just being fobbed off – he can’t have pitched it right”. It’s a possibility, but I don’t think it’s the case on this occasion – I’d also like to think I have a modicum of ability to pitch. Actually, without bordering on the arrogant, I know I do. This lead me to think about the topic of press trips in more detail.

Give a lot, get a little
I spoke to some of my peers internally and at other agencies. It was comforting to hear they too had recently encountered similar for client events. One such peer added that they had encountered numerous declines for an event, that went on to receive widespread pickup from journalists who decided to sit and wait for the release. Another made a valid point and added, “an accepted invite is often seen as guaranteed coverage by pr executives. The further a journalist must travel, the more pressure there is for a glowing piece of coverage. Journalists don’t want to be bound by that kind of deal”.

I think that whilst they might deny it, there will always be an element of loyalty by a journalist to a company that pays for a decadent lunch briefing or a trip to a foreign destination, and rightly so. But if there is genuinely no story there in the first place and the pr agency is looking for an easy hit for a difficult client, then the agency needs to question their motives.

What if the client in question binds your hands with embargos about product launches at shows and won’t allow using it as a teaser to the press? Then, you need to act as a consultant and advise that these days, a little give and take is no longer suitable. You need to give a lot more meat in your pitches to the press. Its unlikely a shark will nibble a maggot. Give it the taste of something juicy though, then you’re talking its language! That said, how much of a part is the recession playing in this? Publications have been making cut backs for months. Are they really that short staffed that press trips are a thing of the past?

Obviously a journalist lunch is always popular. But getting the press to travel further a field and leave their office for more than a couple of hours, is it would seem, becoming more of a task. I’d like to point out I know there is obviously greater ease inviting a journalist to a big show or event where they can meet with multiple manufacturers/vendors. The difficulty comes in a vendor specific press junket.

Open all hours
As we adopt digital media into our pr campaigns, using live webcasts and webinars, creating podcasts and vlogs of key spokespeople and customers, even the use of live streaming services such as Qik! from mobile devices, could we prove to be victims of our own success? Are we digging our own graves when it comes to the inviting press to events? The term accessibility is often used in pr, but by breaking down the barriers to give journalists and bloggers 24/7 access to our clients, is the press trip dead?

I think there is something to be said for a face-to-face meeting with a key spokesperson and always will be. Yes, I work in public relations and as such it’s my prerogative to believe that, but I genuinely do. As long as there is a strong story tied to the current news agenda (or ideally news that could blaze its own trail) and it’s a genuine real opportunity to talk to a key thinker, I believe journalists will always want to attend in-person meet-ups.

Moving forwards
How do you get the press to agree to a visit in the current climate? Package the story of course!

- Check for potential diary clashes – Windows 7 is being launched and so is your new database software? Good luck!
- Give them a good spokesperson - An insightful interview with a genuinely charismatic and interesting client spokesperson who has something to say is priceless
- Offer a customer with a bit of spark - One who hasn’t been force-fed the corporate line
- Know your media – If its not their scope, they’ll never agree!
- Strength of relationship - Invest in your relationships with journalists, it can pay dividends - Most of all…. Give them a worthy story to write about that justifies the time away

Failing that, make sure the briefing or trip you’re offering is within a two-hour radius of London!!!!!

I Predict A Yawn

2009-01-12T19:55:00.002Z

A new year brings new challenges. Lots of journalists and media/pr types have written their predictions for the year ahead and as such I’m not going to waste my time pretending I have an insight into what 2009 holds for pr agencies.

What I am going to do though is look at some of the traditional myths and practices surrounding pr and see if they are relevant to the current state of play, with a healthy dose of my own humble opinion. If you want to comment on the posts, by all means do. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts!

I’m going to kick this series of posts off with the topic of press trips and their worth to journalists and your client in the current climate and pr landscape.

Annual Reviews - The good, The bad and the damn right Ugly

2008-12-12T16:11:00.005Z

As the majority of the world gets excited about Christmas, the main thing on my mind at the moment in my annual review. I find it such an awkward time of year. I've never had a bad one *scrambles for the nearest wooden object*, but I hate discussing money. That goes beyond a work context too, whether it be a mate, a partner, parents.. whoever! I can't abide it.

However, it's something I'm slowly learning to discuss; primarily because more often that not, my dislike of talking about the green, has later lead to a feeling of being undervalued in the workplace!

This year has been pretty epic for me. I've been in PR since May 2007 and this year have had the opportunity to further my knowledge and skills beyond my wildest dreams. In return I'd like to think Octopus Communications has now got itself a pretty damn effective consultant! Despite the great year I've had, I believe come review time, its worth being humble. Its easy to list out your achievements and things you did well, but its also worth reflecting upon those things that didn't go well. Recall the times you feel, "if only I'd done X, we could have got coverage here" or perhaps "if I'd spent more time doing Y, this could've gone better". This is a great example of how to do this.Haha!

A quick look on You Tube reveals some mind numbing stuff - This woman looks insane... would you take advice from her?

It sounds obvious, but its easy to get carried away and demand the world from your employer. I've never experienced a recession or downturn in PR, but I have been in full-time employment for eight (long) years. As such I've seen people demand the world (and then some) in their appraisals. Some got what they wanted, others left for pastures new, only to regret their decision a few months later.

I find it reassuring that so many of our clients at Octopus have remained with the agency and can see the true value of a creative and dynamic PR agency when the chips are down. As such, I feel that same loyalty should be shown by PROs to their agency. I could walk into my review and demand a pay rise, promotion, bonus etc. Surely to some degree, that blatant ignorance of the agency position, begins to undo all of the hard work through the year? Am I right, or am I perhaps being a little naive?

Unless you have been living on the moon, you will know PR has had something of a purple patch in recent years, but I feel PROs need to acknowledge for the next twelve months or so things are going to be tight. The industry as a whole is going to become even more unstable and PROs need to reign in their wild ideas for reward, consider their workplace environment and the clients they work with, before jumping ship into the unknown for a phat pay cheque and a whole lot of trouble.

Chingwagging about 2013

2008-12-03T14:46:00.005Z

On a freezing cold night in central London, a group of about 200 tech heads congregated at the Slug and Lettuce on Wardour Street. Bit of an unusual venue

Last night Chinwag selected a panel of experts and commentators to look five years into the future and predict what might lye ahead for technology, mobile, social networks and digital media. Whilst overall an engaging experience, there appears to be a lot of uncertainty and not just because they were asking speakers to discuss the unknown. Predictions were few and far between, with the odd dash of hypocrisy too.

The speakers on the night were:
Richard Titus (RT) – Head of user experience, BBC Future Media and Technology
Jonathan Mitchener (JM) – Futurologist and Principal Research Scientist, Devices, BT
Simon Collister (SC) – Head of Digital, Consumer Practice, Weber Shandwick
Jamie Coomber (JC) – Head of Digital Strategy, Profero
Neville Hobson (NH) – Blogger / Podcaster / Communicator
Ewan MacLeod (EM) - Mobile Industry Review

JM kicked things off by predicting that without doubt more people will be using the Internet on devices in 2013, to which EM added that more people would have their first experience of the Internet by mobile device than by computer. He added that by 2010 over 612m were expected to do so in China and India alone.

JC added that whilst we will still be using multiple devices in 2013, our online lives will be held in one central hub, with open access across our email, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon etc.

Blogger NH added, “the hurdle to overcome is infrastructure, there is no magic bullet”. “The artificialness of the barriers that exist need to be solved somehow, before adoption spreads and the walls come down”

Chair of the debate, RT mentioned Ofcom who had predicted carriers moving from a channel of pay monthly subscriptions to pay per play. Apparently these contracts are becoming less financially viable.

Great.. We pay through the nose as it is!! 35p for a Vodafone user to call another network outside of their free minutes package. Ridiculous charges for mobile Internet charges too!

RT added an example. Mobile networks already try and tie customers in for 18 month contracts, but 24-36 month deals will become prevalent as they lockdown their users. “Gone are the days of the all you can eat deals!”

The topic moved onto mobile devices, with JM taking the lead and outlining his three ‘C’s of future devices.

Co-operation – The devices will work with multiple software platforms and function with all types of hardware – Essentially open source taken to a whole new level
Clarification – Easier access and a more friendly experience when using different social networks. A deeper understanding of what you want to do
Connection – Your device is clever enough to know when and to whom to connect to, dependent on your preferences and lifestyle

Next up was a question served up from the floor along the lines of.. What would our biggest digital annoyance be in 2013?

JC added simply, “open social Ids”.

Reading between the lines what was meant is a lack of open social ID. What are desired are one-click logins/data entry passports for use across multiple platforms that carry your profile and carry details wherever you might go. For instance when joining a new social network, instead of filling out tedious amounts of detail over and over again, your one login will carry a photo, your D.O.B, likes/dislikes, background with you.

JM added from his vast experience that open innovation works. Gone are the days of in-house, closed mindsets. Collaboration on a global scale with anyone, not necessarily colleagues, but other users etc solves problems.

I think we are already seeing this though, Wikipedia is an obvious example. A practical example is Configipedia created by Tideway Systems. Tideway has provided a forum for debate and development that means users can share information, patches etc and drive the product forwards.

When RT was at Razorfish in 1998, it invested in a vending machine that dispensed soft drinks with a text message. Mobile commerce! Something the World has yet to fully grasp.

EM hoped that by 2013 contact less payment such as the Razorfish example above would be commonplace. On this subject JM added a neat example of how the Third world is getting in on the act too. In Africa payment by text is common, as they don’t trust the banks with their money. Bit like over here really eh? Anyway back to Africa… JC discussed how mobile devices have been adopted to enhance lives in Africa, not just as an entertainment device like in the West. Villagers who have to travel miles for food can now text a butcher shop and ask for meat to be reserved, so their daily trips are no wasted and families don’t starve.

EM added another African tale, whereby farmers can check on their mobiles what the price of wheat is selling for and decide if they should take their produce to market on that day, or hold out for another day when the prices might be more favourable.

RT asked, “Will the Third world surpass Europe and be more mobile?”

NH responded with an instant “NO”. He believes that Silicon Valley will always lead the way in advancements, but the process of getting technologies to market is problematic.

Pretty bold statement. Personally I’d have thought the East is ahead… Hmmm, one to ponder.

Unsurprisingly, the topic of privacy arose with mixed views from the panel. JM was all for data sharing, as long as it was beneficial to all those concerned. He gave a cracking example of when at a conference on the East coast he was given an electronic name badge. He was chatting to a friend, when, on his friends badge a message came up asking him to move to the auditorium as the conference was about to begin. Fascinating that the technology knew where he was and whom he was talking to and that he was more likely to read a message on his friends badge than on his!! This is a great example of giving away information to receive something useful back. After the conference he was presented with a list of participants, ordered with the people he spoke to most and found most interesting first!!!

That said, Tesco probably has more data than we realise about us and our habits via the Clubcard than any company could ever dream of!

JM went on to explain that as more of our lives become exposed online, we as humans would have to make more decisions and become ultimately more responsible.

NH brought up how several US companies are now listing the fact they don’t restrict access to Facebook as a benefit on job adverts. Generation Y isn’t interested in life assurance and pensions, more can they found out if their mate Dave got so drunk at the weekend he ended up in Solihull rather than Slough.

There was a sticking point for me on the night though. On one hand open source technology was dismissed by the panellists as having no real benefit on the man in the street. I thought this was extremely naïve. Especially as towards the end of the night when discussing the current economic conditions, the panel agreed the time was right for small, innovative individuals to come to the fore. Essentially open source breeds this kind of individual, right?

As the evening drew to a close, the ‘F’ word came up again. RT discussed that last year he was debating whether Facebook would be able to overtake Myspace. I think we all know the answer to that. As such, 2013 is a very long way away and the Internet is still very much in its infancy. A lot more laptops, flash drives, hard drives and ultimately jobs will be lot before we full understand the consequences of our online actions and what the true power of the Internet is.

I'm back and its time for a change.

2008-12-02T22:32:00.003Z

Having given up on my blog for a few months to focus purely on microblogging on Twitter, I have returned to give this page a makeover. In the last year I've met so many interesting people and learnt so much about the media, be it digital or print.

From this day onwards, expect some changes, I welcome your thoughts and comments - Please email me at - jwarnette ( at ) gmail.com .

Long live the Media Monkey!

Facebook Mapped!

2008-08-27T19:30:00.003+01:00

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/08/mapping_facebooks_growth.html

Facebook's growth mapped for the first time using Google ad technology. Fascinating stuff, but will it continue? The loss of scrabulous will undoubtedly have dented the websites popularity...

They stopped Glitter coming home, why not stop Goody?

2008-08-21T20:38:00.002+01:00

There are some things on this planet that have no obvious reason to exist, Wasps, Badgers and Jade Goody....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/19/jade.bigbrother

Celebrity Big Brother to return to Channel 4

2008-08-21T20:36:00.002+01:00

Oh for the love of God...........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/21/bigbrother.channel4

iPod generation steals half its music

2008-06-22T11:10:00.000+01:00

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/206424/ipod-generation-steals-half-its-music.html

Bumblebeez Instore On Monday

2008-05-17T10:10:00.005+01:00

To celebrate the release of their debut album "Prince Umberto & The Sister Of Ill" Rough Trade have got the bizarre duo, The Bumblebeez to play an exclusive DJ set at Rough Trade East. The Australian brother / sister combo have been kicking up a storm with their last two singles so the album has been eagerly anticipated.

"Exciting, exhilarant & totally insane" apparently. The jury is still out on them from my point of view, I saw them last year and they sounded like a poor Late Of The Pier without the schizophrenic sounds, but take a look, if only for 'By The Sea'.

Here's the deets:
Monday 19th May 2008, 7.00pm
Rough Trade East In-store - Bumblebeez

NO WRISTBANDS OR GUEST LIST NEEDED.

FOALS Bolt From The Stables

2008-05-17T09:59:00.002+01:00

December 3rd, 2007 sees the release of the first commercial single from Oxford-based quintet, Foals. In possibly the most exciting and forward-thinking collaboration this year, Foals - exploding as one of the hottest bands in the UK today and increasingly known for their explosive mix of techno on guitars and riotous house party shows up and down the country - have recorded their stunning debut album with David Sitek of TV On The Radio (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars) in NYC this summer. Balloons is the first single to be taken from the much anticipated album, and features all new songs across a variety of beautifully illustrated formats – not to mention the first of a series of recordings made in a set-to-be-legendary musical partnership with the highly influential Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet. Kieran's reworking of 'Balloons' is a thrilling, eight-minute variation of the original, arresting and compulsive, and yet another side to this utterly inventive quintet. Back to the release, Foals will appear on Later with Jools Holland on November 16th. Other notable television activity of late includes last single 'Mathletics' appearing as the title music to Skins (currently showing on E4). Yannis, singer describes their guitars sounding like insects, and they are played high on the fret board. Anyone who has seen Foals live will have witnessed their explosive show, which usually ends up in mayhem; ear-rings being ripped out, teeth being broken, kids trampling over each other in stage invasions, all make for thrilling watching in today's over-exposed rock/indie market... Foals stand out from the crowd. The nano-tech precision was a result of Yannis' obsession with sonic tidiness and the reductive approach of the aforementioned Steve Reich, the man who introduced the concept of minimalism to popular music in the '60s and '70s. As well as Reich, Foals name check minimal German techno tracks such as Plumbicon by Monolake and Dead Man Watches The Clock by Dettman/Klock. "But we like all kinds of stuff," says Yannis. "Devo, Glen Branca, Battles, Arthur Russell, Nelly Furtado. Justin Timberlake. Jack listens to electronica. We like taking the best bits of other music and forming a new whole. That's not an original idea, but I think what comes out of it is fresh." Live, Foals don't so much fizz with energy as explode like a well-shaken bottle of champagne. "It's like we're all battling for supremacy on stage," says Edwin. The dance-inflected beats have seen them rock venues ranging from the kitchen at a house party to London warehouse parties. It's no exaggeration to say they are the best new band in the UK. Foals continue to tour the UK in November, and play with Bloc Party in December. Upcoming tour dates: 23rd Nov Club EVOL @ Korova, Liverpool 25th Nov Charlotte, Leicester 26th Nov Club Ifor Bach, Cardiff 27th Nov Wedgwood rooms, Portsomouth (+14) 28th Nov The Works, Kingston 1st Dec Warehouse Project w/ Liars & Kieren Hebden, Manchester 3rd Dec Central Station (14+) Rescheduled from 6th Oct, Wrexham 4th Dec Brickyard (14=) Rescheduled from 11th Oct, Carslile 12th Dec SECC w/ Bloc Party, Glasgow 13th Dec G-Mex w/ Bloc Party, Manchester 14th Dec Alexandra Palace w/ Bloc Party, London 15th Dec Alexandra Palace w/ Bloc Party, London