WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

A few pictures from Rory Cellan-Jones about the construction of the new BBC headquarters in the old Regent Street headquarters.

This will be one the world’s  largest multimedia newsroom (up to 6,000 people in total and up to 320 journalists in the newsroom).

I saw the plans last year during our meetings with the BBC journalism editors, and the real thing looks better.

This mega-newsroom will be fully operational in 2013.

The dramatic BBC newsroom will be visible both from the street and through a large glass window in a BBC Media Cafe open to the public.

In this picture you can see the INNOVATION “solar system” idea under construction

And here you can have a full view of the central desk

Read here more about the current work in Broadcasting House.

BBC has posted this 100-second videoclip about the first 100 days of the new British government.

Well this kind of TV-twittering doesn’t make any sense.

Shows a lot of images, but explains too little.

BBC delivers 100 seconds of almost nothing.

And, what a shame!, it’s now one of the most viewed videos in one of the best UK  journalism websites.

A good headline for light journalism.

That’s all.

Fake journalism.

Just entertainment.

Cameron and Clegg: neck to neck.

Brown, toasted.

BBC wins versus ITV and SKY on best set and best presenter.

The Guardian, pro-Labour but now pro-Liberal Democrat, makes Cameron the winner with this column written by his associate editor Martin Kettle:

The central character in the three-man drama that has so energised British politics this month is neither Brown nor Clegg but David Cameron. It is Cameron who, after a bad debut two weeks ago came back with a stronger performance last week and who, in Jeremy Hunt’s phrase, faced the most important job interview of his life.

The BBC reports:

A leading Russian historian has admitted writing anonymous online reviews condemning his rivals’ work.

Orlando Figes, a professor at Birkbeck College in London, wrote the negative reviews on the Amazon website.

His admission follows a row between top UK historians over the string of reviews that praised Figes while criticising other authors.

In a statement, Figes – who is now on sick leave – “apologised wholeheartedly” to all concerned.

Robert Service, a respected historian of the Soviet Union and the subject of one of Figes’ anonymous reviews, wrote in the Guardian newspaper that the “secretive rubbishing of my work… [was] disgraceful.”

Well, no newspaper or magazine will print anonymous letters or comments from the readers, and if sometimes they do it, the editors know the real identity of those writers.

It’s amazing that in the online culture, mega websites like Amazon could accept this kind of practices.

Critics with no real face are just cowards.

A brand new £500 million cruise ship is right now in Bilbao (Spain) boarding hundreds of tourists stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud.

Free.

The 122,000-tonne Celebrity Eclipse was to be in Britain for inaugural celebrations before a two-day launch cruise, but they changed plans.

Smart move.

They are getting now:

Hours and hours of free media coverage.

Including reporters that were invited aboard, like Jo Palmer that writes for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight BBC website and twitters from the ship.

Tons of free publicity, and the goodwill of cruise market costumers.

Bilbao pick-up will be restricted to customers of Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook and Co-op Travel Group who have been allocated a space aboard the ship.

Eclipse, which can carry 2,850 passengers, will get back to Southampton tomorrow and should dock at the City Cruise Terminal at around 6pm.

Brilliant!

The BBC reports:

The head of the Civil Aviation Authority Dame Deirdre Hutton has announced that airspace across the UK will reopen from 10pm on Tuesday evening.

From the BBC website a crazy map of the crazy ash cloud and how there is no logic behind the airports shut.

The maps above (21 April, 1000 GMT) shows how flights have been restricted to flying around the ash cloud, shown in red.

Where the shading is darkest, it indicates the cloud is extending higher into the atmosphere.

Today in the front page of the London Evening News.

British Airways wants to fly.

Virgin Airlines wants to fly.

BMI wants to fly.

The pilots want to fly.

KLM, LUFTHANSA are flying…

And the government keeps the country as a no-fly-zone while sends the Royal Navy to rescue British citizens around Spain.

The BBC reports:

Jason Alderwick, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, cautioned against expecting too much of the Royal Navy’s capacity to move people because it was designed to shift troops rather than large numbers of holiday makers. “Lord West [the defence minister] has talked about being able to lift a brigade-level of some 3,500 people across the fleet,” he told the BBC. “That’s about 1,000 per ship [based on what has been deployed]. I think that everything will be welcomed but let’s get this in proportion.”

Looks like a joke!

Downing Street ministers, after a 85 minute emergency meeting, have brilliant ideas for you, the UK taxpayer:

1. Lose more money keeping the air ban on.

2. Sending the Royal Navy to Spain in order to repatriate the Britons there.

Crazy, really crazy!

The BBC reports about these political genius that were just off and sleeping during the weekend:

Ideas to emerge from a Downing Street meeting include using Spain as a flight hub, a role for the Royal Navy and requisitioning commercial vessels.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have called for ministers to give out more information.

UK flight restrictions will be in place until at least 0700 BST on Monday.

Forecasters have warned the dust cloud may remain over the UK for several days.

Bodies representing European airports and airlines have called for flight restrictions to be reviewed.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, who emerged from the meeting flanked by several cabinet colleagues, said: “We will mobilise all possible means to get people home.”

He said Prime Minister Gordon Brown would meet with his Spanish counterpart to explore whether Britons could be returned by landing in Spain – which is open to flights – from certain parts of the world.

(In the Graeme Robertson picture, Lord Mandelson dances with Hanna Mackenzie at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool three days ago, one day after the air ban went on)

Flightglobsal is a serious website about aviation, and a few minutes ago posted this revealing summary (blacks are  ine):

“German carriers Lufthansa and Air Berlin have expressed scepticism over the volcanic ash risk, and the need to keep airspace closed, after neither detected any technical problems during a series of positioning flights.

Lufthansa has repositioned 10 Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A340 aircraft from Munich to Frankfurt, in preparation for eventual clearance to operate. The aircraft mainly performed under visual flight rules, limiting their altitude to 3,000m (9,800ft), although one of the jets was taken to 8,000m to assess the atmospheric conditions.

A spokesman for the airline says that none of the aircraft showed any sign of volcanic ash damage.

These results are generating a steadily-growing backlash against regulatory authorities and increasing doubts about the scientific basis for keeping European airspace closed.

The Lufthansa spokesman argues that decisions appear to be founded on volcanic monitoring forecasts rather than actual atmospheric testing.

“Everyone’s basing decisions on estimates from computer simulations,” he says. “We need additional tests and analysis, test flights need to be done. But this is not being done quickly enough.”

Air Berlin yesterday carried out positioning flights of three Airbus aircraft on the Munich-Dusseldorf and Nuremberg-Hamburg sectors.
The airline says that technical inspections “did not reveal any adverse effects” on the jets, and is similarly questioning the rationale behind the airspace restrictions.

“We are amazed that the results obtained from test flights carried out by Lufthansa and Air Berlin…did not have any influence whatsoever on the decisions taken by the aviation safety authorities,” says Air Berlin chief Joachim Hunold.

The carrier is offering to conduct formal test flights to examine the risk and is pressing the German transport ministry to establish a crisis-management operation.

Pilots from the Netherlands are calling on governments to allow partial restoration of services. Dutch pilots’ union VNV believes the concentration of volcanic particles is “so small that it presents no danger”.

Dutch carrier KLM is planning to operate another series of flights today following an initial airborne test on 17 April.

KLM has secured permission for another nine flights. The first has been conducted out of Dusseldorf, at 06:30 today, with 20 crew members on board but no passengers.

Seven aircraft are stranded in Dusseldorf and KLM aims to reposition these back to its Amsterdam Schiphol base.

Its initial test flight, with a Boeing 737-800, aircraft indicated no operational problems and KLM says the “quality of the atmosphere is in order”. KLM insists, however, that safety “remains the chief priority”.

Chief executive Peter Hartman stresses that the decision on resuming normal air operations lies with the Dutch and European authorities, but that it hopes to restore services as soon as possible if restrictions are lifted.

Air France is carrying out its own test flight today, using an Airbus A320, and similar flights are reportedly to be undertaken in the UK.”

The BBC reports here about the same:

Europe’s airlines and airports have called for an immediate reassessment of flight restrictions imposed because of volcanic ash from Iceland. Two bodies that represent most of Europe’s airlines and airports say they question the extent of the flight restrictions currently imposed.