Craig McGinty

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Say hello to This New Zealand Life

This-new-zealand-lifeI HAVE helped freelance journalist William Knight get up and running with a TypePad based site called This New Zealand Life.

William recently headed off to the other side of the earth with his partner and two children after having spent time on and off in New Zealand in the past.

The site will be offering news and advice for people looking to move to New Zealand as well as feature interviews with those who have made the move, as well as articles by William about his own experiences of life overseas.

As for making it pay, at the moment it is just via Google Adsense but as readership grows then Addiply is likely to come into play and I hope that William begins to gain in other ways from This New Zealand Life being recognised within its field.

May 01, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)

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A link collection to click through

HERE is a quick selection of interesting points out on the internet that may prove useful:

Birmingham Post: A Regional Newspaper Case Study
View more presentations from joannageary. (tags: pr media)
Case study of the work undertaken by UK regional newspaper the Birmingham Post by Joanna Geary

Newspapers' supply-and-demand problem (Why you should quit doing what everyone else is)

“Facebook causes cancer” - Dr Ben Goldacre (again) has to be the questioner when journalists should be doing this themselves

Social networking benefits validated - Washington Times

Business models of news

A Google Map of UK independent news blogs

February 25, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Financial journos, bad science and the future four years ago

IT is always a little worrying when government wants to shoot the messenger for problems it directly should be influencing.

That's what is being mooted by the Treasury Select Committee as it takes aim at the press for, it claims, reporting on the current economic situation irresponsibly and only adding to the situation.

Charlie Beckett highlights the issue as a colleague of his at POLIS looked at how financial journalism has changed in the 24 news environment we now live in.

Surely we don't want to go back to the days of only 'being in the know' if you wore the right colour tie, but I do think journalism could help itself and play the contrary card.

Why not provide readers with links to reports that have been quoted in an article, links to the websites of company's mentioned, the ability to download spreadsheets of data - give people the evidence and let them come to their own conclusions.

Most of this information is publicly available, it's just well hidden, but journalists have the skills and experience to shine a light on such and so help readers.

Then if the Treasury Select Committee say that there is too much detail being made available, journalists can pass on any angry comments directly to the MPs themselves.

Another one of my web stops today was the website of Ben Goldacre, who is a journalist on The Guardian but also a doctor and burster of far from scientific science.

He took a pin to the many detox offerings out there at this time of year, including one that was featured on The Today programme this morning and 6 o'clock news tonight.

Finally there has been much talk at the start of 2009 of this being the year that many local newspapers will hit the wall, leaving journalists out of a job and many communities with no 'glue', with Roy Greenslade wondering if anything will fill the void.

In the comments to that piece my pal Rick Waghorn takes a stab at a possible way forward, and adds a little on his own website.

And if you want to get up to speed on where these changes have come from and where they could be heading, We The Media by Dan Gillmor is still the place to start, four and a bit years on since its publication.

January 05, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Pointing out some articles

FolkfestivalJUST a quick collection of links featuring interesting posts dotted around the internet, and if you have a few hours spare this weekend a chance to listen to some music in Manchester.

Hal Varian: 14 Free business models - The Long Tail
A piece on Chris Anderson's blog, who is the man behind the Long Tail and he is currently working on a book titled Free that looks at alternative methods of generating revenue through the web.

Rue89: "Advertising is out of reach" - Journalism Enterprise
A look behind the scenes of one of the French language news websites I have been reading since it first came online, highlights the difficulties facing any internet publication.

The lifecycle of a news story - Alison Gow
A very interesting piece about how news stories could be compiled, written, commented upon, progressed and taken in so many directions with the tools out there today.

Breaking the email compulsion - The Guardian
Remember life before email? Well Suw Charman-Anderson looks at the world of email and the terrible stress and strain it has on people, "email is as addictive as a slot machine".

How to get noticed (the art of positioning) - ProBlogger
If there is one thing blogs and all the related tools of the internet let you do it is create and appeal to an audience, without requiring millions of pounds behind you.

The New Islington Festival - Manchester
If after following all these links you have a little time on your hands this weekend, then take up the chance to enjoy some free folk art, music, dance, film and some very special events.

September 04, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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PaidContent bought by The Guardian

ONE of the very first blogs I popped into my RSS feedreader was Rafat Ali's PaidContent, not only for its insight into digital publishing, but to study as a way for freelancers to create their own online presence.

Well five or more years on the site has become a brilliant example of a publishing venture that has expanded from beyond the web, to be snapped up by The Guardian for a rumoured $30 million.

Although nothing has been officially announced The Guardian's technology editor Charles Arthur practically confirmed the news in a Twitter message.

For a little more background drop in on ReadWriteWeb.

Update:
ContentNext 2.0: Life With The Guardian Media Group - PaidContent
Guardian News & Media buys PaidContent publisher - The Guardian

July 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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MEP says bloggers 'considerably pollute cyberspace'

THE whole process of the way this story has been placed in front of a number of people in around an hour or so should be considered by a group of MEPs who have their eyes on regulating bloggers.

Thanks to a message on Twitter from Mark Comerford about an EU report titled DRAFT REPORT on concentration and pluralism in the media in the European Union (.pdf) I've been able to read that MEPs are keen to promote 'voluntary labelling' for blogs.

And thanks to Mark highlighting a link to an accompanying article on the European Parliament news service I've been able to read how aware of the range of blogs the report's author is.

Continue reading "MEP says bloggers 'considerably pollute cyberspace'" »

June 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)

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Learning from Iain Dale's political blog

Iain DaleONE of the UK's most popular political blogs is Iain Dale's Diary and the man behind it is featured by the Press Gazette today because of his plan to produce a spin-off magazine, see Total Politics: Boldly going where no blogger has gone before.

One of the reasons behind the move is that Iain's site has produced poor returns on advertising, he says that Adsense has earned him £7,000 a year and that advertisers just don't get blogs.

From a blog publisher's perspective, there are a couple of things I would take from the interview and a look over Iain Dale's Diary website.

Continue reading "Learning from Iain Dale's political blog" »

June 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Robin Hamman heads out of the BBC

THE blogging man from the BBC, Robin Hamman, is heading out of Broadcast House to take up a new role at Headshift, a social media consultancy.

Robin was the leading force behind the BBC Manchester blog project and enjoyed the respect of many bloggers in the city, so I am sure they will wish him the best of luck in his new job, I know I do.

June 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)

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What I've learnt from a blog

I HAVE put together a short piece for Linda Jones that is now up and running on her Freelance Writing Tips website on the most important things I've learnt from running blog-driven websites, hope it gives you a few ideas:

Craig McGinty on how journalists can reap the rewards of blogging - and he should know!

February 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Why blogs are important

HERE are two example of why blogs have had such an impact on people and how they live their lives, and it has nothing to do with citizen journalism, marketing campaigns or "buzz".

A Change Really is as Good as a Rest
The Kiss. The Story of a Dream

December 23, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (6)

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