The New New Newspaper

As I was reading the free daily Metro on a train the other day I was daydreaming about a different kind of newspaper but similar in form to the Metro. Instead of giving me a brief run-down of the news which lasted 20 mins, my “New Metro” would have similar stories, but also print lots of URLs so I could go and find out more information. And I don’t mean

Facebook’s new keyword ad system

Facebook has quietly launched a keyword advertising system to rival Google’s AdSense. Disguised as a simple upgrade to Flyers, its system for selling cheap ads on a self-service basis, the new system charges per click and lets advertisers target by city, gender, age, relationship status, employer, educational level, political views, and keywords. Facebook has the data, generated by its users and the new system will have “detailed reporting”.

House style killing US newspapers?

When I wrote for a US-owned magazine (The Industry Standard), the house style on almost any story, for example about a company closing, was like this: “John Smith looked at his watch. As the seconds slowly passed, he knew it was time to step up to the plate and tell the board what was going to happen in the next six months. But something stopped him… yada yada.” This was

Is The Standard coming back?

The Industry Standard, my former magazine, appears to be considering re-launching. Its six years since the death of the “newsmagazine of the Internet Economy�, but at least it left a good looking corpse. Many people still respect the kind of in-depth investigate coverage it brought to the Internet industry. Quite why owners IDG are considering bringing it back is beyond me. Time-Warner pulled the plug on Business 2.0, a similar

Digital design event

If you are interested in current digital technology and creativity developments, or have something to contribute about the importance of good design principles in interactive media, then check out iDesign: design for life on September 18th, at London’s Southbank Centre, Purcell Room as part of this year’s London Design Festival. There’ll be an exhibition and debates to examine the impact of digital interactive media on all of our daily lives,

Standard coming back?

The Industry Standard, my former magazine, appears to be considering re-launching. Its six years since the death of the “newsmagazine of the Internet Economy”, but at least it left a good looking corpse. Many people still respect the kind of in-depth investigate coverage it brought to the Internet industry. Quite why owners IDG are considering bringing it back is beyond me. Time-Warner pulled the plug on Business 2.0, a similar

New-ish pastures

You may have picked this up elsewhere, but here’s a brief announcement for mbites readers. I am the new Editor of TechCrunch UK & Ireland. Some may know that I helped launch the site for the first time late last year. I also resigned after what I perceived at the time to be unnecessary editorial interference from the US site in a UK editorial issue. It’s hard to explain it

My talk at PSFK London

Last May, at the PSFK Conference London 2007 I gave a talk on how media owners are on a race for survival against technology companies that put the power to publish in the hands of the ‘audience.’ Here it is, including my embarrassing stall half way through where I need to go get some water: Click To Play PSFK are running some much better speakers than I at the PSFK

This week I am mostly at…

I HATE blog posts that apologise for the lack of updates. Like, who cares?! Either blog or don’t blog. Just don’t apologise. However, I do find that these days I update my Twitter microblog more than this blog! And I have been working on other stuff other than blogging lately. And thinking. However, I will be writing about the Brunch Bites event last week soon. This week I have been

Mashup Demo in October

mashup, which runs ‘digital’ events, is launching Mashup Demo on Oct 2nd. It’s been put together to provide startups and growing companies in the digital sector with a platform from which to demo their services to an audience of investors, corporates, bloggers, journalists and industry influencers. This allows them to overtly sell and flaunt their products and services, gain feedback on concepts, develop or find partners, seek investment, practice the