Today is the Fourth of July and many American newspapers use their front pages not for news but for a traditional display of patriotism.
Only in America!
The Richmond one is, by the way, a sure SND winner.
New revelations in print today, but announced last night online.
And a new resignation a few minutes ago.
The Daily Telegraph knocks out the Minister of Justice.
“More to come”
Today’s Daily Telegraph leader is clear:
MPs’ first job must be to remove Speaker Martin.
Michael Martin could become the first Speaker to be thrown out of office in 300 years.
Well, Speaker Martin is just another political clown.
Yes, a national disgrace.
Watch this video from SkyNews.
Former Speaker Betty Boothroyd “believes Speaker Martin has been a failure of leadership”.
Today’s Daily Mail comment:
“How much longer can this discredited buffoon cling on to his high office?”
Gabriel Hershman’s opinion:
“This man has done more to lower the standard of parliament in people’s eyes than any other speaker
“Order, order, order!” is what he shouts all the time, but his cover up of the MPs expenses is unacceptable.
He has to go, and the Telegraph is right to the point.
A survey by the Web site politicshome.com showed 85 percent of MPs now believe he should step down.
As the Financial Times says today:
“Mr Martin made a mistake in fighting the publication of expense receipts, opposing moves to reform and underestimating public anger.”
Oh boy, what a week for the Telegraph and the British media.
As always:
Print the news and raise hell!
Rob Curley explains the Las Vegas Sun’s news multimedia strategy in these three points:
Build a print edition for those who love newspapers, that is loaded with Journalism with Capital J.
Build a local news website that is really webby, and not just a digital record of what was printed last night.
And use video like video is really used (on broadcast, cable and on the Internet) — not the way newspapers have traditionally used it.
Watch here a videoclip of the newspaper’s publisher.
The Las Vegas Sun won its first Pulitzer ever with a public-service gold medal for its work exposing the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip.
The writer behind the story was a 29-year-old second-year reporter: Alexandra Berzon, who got her masters degree from UC-Berkeley.
Rupert Murdoch’s the News of The World is a trashy Sunday tabloid.
Really trashy, full of yellow journalism.
But today they have a sad story about a wild party night for Michael Phelps in Columbia, South Carolina.
The paper claims that he was smoking a cannabis pipe, and that’s the picture of the day.
The PR machine of the Olympic swimmer wanted to stop the publication of the picture.
And the News of The World, which sometimes pays for pictures and articles about scandals, this time did what any newspaper has to do.
In their own words:
“Phelps is represented by marketing giant Octagon, which works with huge brands such as Mastercard and HSBC.
They admitted proven cannabis use would be “a major taint” on Phelps’ character.
Spokesman Clifford Bloxham offered us an extraordinary deal not to publish our story, saying Phelps would become our columnist for three years, host events and get his sponsors to advertise with us.
In return, he asked that we kill Phelps’ bong picture.
Bloxham said: “It’s seeing if something potentially very negative for Michael could turn into something very positive for the News of the World.”
Another fallen hero.
And an expected end of a life that he once described as:
“All you do is eat, sleep, swim; eat, sleep, swim; eat, sleep, swim.”
What a compelling human story to tell!
That nobody covered.
Now we will get it.
Thanks — oh dear — to the News of The World.
Jimmy Leach, The Independent’s digital director:
“You have to go where the audience is rather than expecting them to come to us.”
A hard lesson learned from the free papers.
A pending lesson to be learned by many circulation directors.
A great lesson to be learned by many classified directors.
And a fantastic lesson, too, from the new 24/7 multimedia information engines.
(Via Gabriel Sama)
Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP, blogs from Davos at the Financial Times.
Bad, boring blogger.
But great FT idea.
Pure advertising.
With great insights.
Are you ready?
What about this one?
“Participant numbers should be reduced.
Security is also very tight, aggravated by the crush.
There are heavy lines and queuing, especially early in the morning.”
Steve Jobs was out.
But the Apple show is in.
With fantastic news:
3.4 million customers visit the Apple stores every week.
Last year Apple sold 9.7 million Macs.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro is the world’s lightest and thinnest 17-inch notebook.
A new 40 percent larger battery, with the same weight battery that will last 8 hours on a charge, and can be charged 1000 times …
Apple sold 6 billion songs … and iTunes is the world’s largest media library, including 75 million accounts with credit cards.
Over the last six years songs have been $0.99, but now the new pricing will be $0.69
New iTunes Plus … starting today: 8 million songs will be DRM free. By the end of this quarter, all 10 million songs will be DRM free.
And the music store is now finally available over 3G, and not just WiFi.
Alfredo Trivino has redesigned The Sunday Times and he has done a super job.
The leading British Sunday paper is now full color, more easy to read and better organized.
As Harold Evans writes;:
“This week’s Sunday Times looks more attractive than last week’s with the sparkle of the best of the web pages, but that is not the central point of the redesign.
A superficial change of look is not what design is all about.
Newspaper design is not about cosmetics; it is about enhancing communication.”
And today’s changes enhance the communication with readers.
Brilliant, Alfredo!
The paper is launching a £3 million ($6 million) marketing campaign featuring Peter O’Toole with the new slogan “The Sunday Times. For all you are.”
The old slogan “The Sunday Times is the Sunday Papers,” will still be featured, though in modified form on the second page, where it will appear as “The Sunday Times is my Sunday Papers.”
Our first screen in the INNOVATION presentation at the WAN Congress.
We need more than cosmetics.
More than decorators.
Much more than face-lifts.
The newspaper industry needs WILD IDEAS.
Serious INNOVATIONS.
Real CHANGES.
Dramatic (RE)EVOLUTIONS.
Tons of CREATIVITY.
And JOURNALISM at its best.
So, we’ll repeat it again and again, “don’t put lipstick on a pig when our newspapers need heart surgery.”
