Is the Media Industry being Brave enough with apps

Just a few short months ago the arrival of the iPad was being hailed as the saviour of the newspaper and magazine business. After the initial enthusiasm the realisation that apps are not a simple quick fix for the media industries malaise has led to a rapid growth in cynicism and caution. It reminds of the early response of the magazine industry to the emergence of the web: “It’s interesting but there is no money in it – so we will wait and see.”

It is estimated that some 48 million iPads could be sold this year, but other tablets on Google’s open source Android platform will outsell the apple solution within two years (our report on mobile publishing has much, much more on this).

Meanwhile we have already reached the point where one per cent of the world’s web traffic is driven by iPads. That is a staggering rate of growth.

Read the rest of the is post here

How can journalism respond to The News Of the World Saga?

The only media story this week is the demise of The News of The World.  What does this mean for the wider issues of probity in journalism?  Is this a waterhed moment – and how should the newspaper industry respond to the outrage amongst the reading public?  In my column for www,themediabriefing.com this week I imagine two letters from the world or journalism to the world of readers.  Which, if either is the more honest? http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2011-07-11/two-open-letters-from-british-journalism-to-its-readers

Do we all need to go bust?

I am writing a weekly column for www.themediabreifing.com.  This week I have been thinking about whether the media industry is being radical enough to re invent itself.  From the evidence I gleaned at the recent Wan Ifra conference in Zurich, the asnswer is almost certainly no.  Anyway you can read what I had to say about it here, http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2011-07-04/do-media-companies-have-to-go-bust-before-they-can-reinvent-themselves