Entries from October 2010

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Independent “i”: please employ more sub-editors

A few days ago I wrote, perhaps optimistically, that if “i” follows the Metro model, it’ll rely heavily on sub-editors to put the paper out, which should offer the benefit at least of raising standards of proofreading accuracy. How did that work out? Well, I didn’t catch the paper on its first day, but a skim […]

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Six Laws of CMS: lessons from a web site launch

As regular visitors may be aware, I spend a lot of time with web content management systems (CMS). Having spent some time involved in a biggish web site relaunch this year, I can now reliably draft some of the Laws of CMS that anyone in this field should expect to apply. Law 1: It only exists […]

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

The worst local election leaflet ever?

I know, I know – you thought the Lib-Dems had finally graduated to the big leagues in politics. They’ve got nice suits, seats in Cabinet and a highly sophisticated communications machine. But it was not ever thus. Unpacking boxes in Freelance Unbound’s spacious new South-West headquarters reveals this local election leaflet from just a few […]

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Will "i" succeed where the Independent fails?

Yesterday saw confirmation that the Independent is to launch a 20p news-digest style paper to target “lapsed readers of quality newspapers”. But will “i” succeed in stemming the flow of readers away from newsprint? The inclusion of an iPad app format indicates that Russian owner Alexander Lebedev has his eye on the young, digital-savvy market. But […]

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Note to Bath & NE Somerset council: please proofread your roadsigns

It’s always fun for smug media professionals to flag up the illiteracy of local councils, so here’s a nice example from a road sign currently on display in Bath. Given the parlous state of the nation’s finances, I suspect it won’t be replaced for a while. But, I mean, it’s not as if you don’t […]

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

Weird site of the day – Amateur.org.uk

In the first of what may turn out to be an occasional series, here’s the result of some Popbitch-inspired web trawling: Amateur.org.uk. With posts titled “On Numinosity“, “Tender Buttons” and “Milk“, this is clearly a site designed for those with a most discerning intellectual curiosity. Sample text: Objects proliferate as never before, but they are mostly […]

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

State of the Blogosphere Survey – Technorati needs you

Having posted previously about Technorati’s annual state of the blogosphere survey, I am pleased to actually take part this year. Tellingly, one question asks me “Which best describes how frequently you blog now versus when you first launched your blog?”. To which the answer is a shameful “I blog a lot less now”. But I’ve […]