Is it just me, or do newspapers consistently fail to tell us why they’re important? All the advertising I see these days (that isn’t just a quick plug about a free DVD in tomorrow’s paper) seems to emphasise the choice and diversity available to the reader. Surely it’s time for struggling papers to emphasise the core value they offer instead?

The Sunday Times is “for all you are” and has some (admittedly great) ads like this one featuring a paperboy emphasising the diversity of their content. But with this form of publishing in direct competition with the infinitely diverse web browser, surely there’s more sense in talking about their extensive resources and (supposed) impartiality?

I recently came across this wonderful old advert for the Guardian which tells me it’s an independent newspaper with the resources to get to the truth that might not be easy to find. And it’s so much more effective than anything I’ve seen recently.

Does anyone know of any recent campaigns that remind the public of these kind of values?

Posted by Dave Molloy in •Business •Journalism
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There’s a notion amongst journos who are good at what they do that every prospective reporter should be born with some sort of heaven-sent ability to write a story in perfect inverted pyramid form. Baloney. As anyone who’s spent time as a section editor for a college paper knows, first-year students getting stuck in to writing for the first time need to be shown the ropes.

Not every university that has a college paper has a journalism course or school of media. Mine didn’t, but I was lucky enough to be educated by a smart and savvy team in a student paper which has been around for over 50 years. For those less fortunate, there’s plenty of material out there to teach those who need to teach themselves. Whether you’re an incoming news editor who needs to train reporters for the first time, or someone who has inherited the Editor’s position and wants to brush up on some skills, these are some resources which have helped me out over the years.

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I was asked today if I’d consider subscribing to The Times (of London) now that they’ve moved behind a paywall. My answer was no. In a similar vein, I completed The Guardian‘s iPhone app customer survey, in which many of the questions probed the app user’s willingness to pay for a subscription model. I gave them an ample response (which they probably didn’t want) explaining why I felt they needed an international approach to their strategy.

In short, these news organisation produce some brilliant content for international customers, but all too often it’s buried underneath masses of content that interest only an audience in the UK . Unlike many of my Trinity College classmates, I don’t particularly care about the minutiae of number 10, but rather want my British politics painted in the same broad strokes with which I observe other global powers. Equally (and The Times is particularly bad at this) I don’t want my otherwise enjoyable features reading to be peppered with allusions to “the great British insert-topic-here.” It’s almost as if a sub-editor comes along and looks at each piece, and saying “ah, we’ve missed an opportunity to insert a reference about fish and chips at Cornwall”, inserts some edits.

Online media represents an opportunity for the very best media companies to offer their non-local content to a global audience. I’d pay for the Guardian’s columnists or The Times’ internationally-relevant investigative work. But I won’t pay for the privilege of hunting through localised content to do so. These companies need to provide alternate international sites and applications that prioritise content in different ways. Then, maybe I’ll feel that as an Irish man, I can justify the expense.

Posted by Dave Molloy in •Business •Journalism
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The BBC, that bastion of Britishness, has launched two new iPhone apps for both news and football. Sadly for our UK cousins, they’re not actually available in Britain at all.

The BBC apps were originally due out in April, but were delayed following the Newspaper Publishers Association’s complaint, lodged with the BBC trust, that such a strategy would damage the “nascent market”. At the time, if you remember, there were a lot of questions being asked about how the BBC was spending its licence fee, and so the apps were put on ice.

Now, however, they’re being offered as an ad-supported service outside the UK, where complaints about the licence fee and the UK market don’t apply. And how lucky we fans of the BBC news service are- these applications are absolutely excellent.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Journalism •Tech
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