WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Like the Mexican pandemic flu, the volcano ashes from Iceland are becoming a nightmare.

So the Mandarins are canceling all the flights in the UK and many other European countries.

Who’s in charge in this mess?

Nobody except the Mandarins!

Look below at the last map released by the British Met Office.

As you can see, no ashes over the UK.

So why the airplanes cannot fly?

Why Jeff Jarvis was able to fly today from Munich?

Why between 100 and 120 airplanes crossed today the Atlantic and landed in Europe?

And more dramatic, in the Civil Aviation Forum, one reader says:

“The previous eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, whose ash cloud has shut down airspace over Britain, lasted for more than a year, according to an expert.”

The chaos is affecting to everybody:

The German secretary of defence was today on his way back from Afghanistan with five seriously wounded German soldiers on board (four others were killed) and it is not known where the Airbus A310 was be able to land in Germany with those medical emergencies who need urgent treatment.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be diverted to Lisbon on her return from the US today – and be stranded there until tomorrow afternoon as the crew will be out hours.

What about Obama going tomorrow Saturday to the funeral in  Poland?

The New York Times reports about i:

It would be hard to find a less promising country in which to start a newspaper than Portugal. Not only are readers defecting to the Internet, as they are elsewhere, but relatively few people ever picked up a paper to begin with. And print advertising has plunged by more than 40 percent this year.Yet while newspapers elsewhere are shutting down or grappling with an uncertain future, Portugal recently got a new one, called i, short for informação, or information.

“Everyone was astonished that they went ahead with the launch when they did,” said João Palmeiro, president of the Portuguese Publishers Association, referring to Lena Group, the Portuguese industrial conglomerate that owns the paper. But he added, “Most of the people are sticking with it once they read it.”

Well, this Thursday, the regional chapter of the Society of News Design holds its annual meeting in Lisbon with a fantastic program that includes the award ceremony for the best designed newspapers of Spain and Portugal.

And the editors of  i will explain and present the new paper.