Sour Alba

All hail the New Media Company Generator - a worthy successor to the almost prophetic Web Economy Bullshit Generator. (I know companies that really do “exploit viral markets” and “scale robust communities”.)

The wickedly observed company generator came up with ThirstyBadger, which on the while I like better than w00tonomy.

It’s 18 months since I left scotsman.com. I knew the new Johnston Press redesign was, to put it very, very, mildly, unworthy to lick the boots of the 2001-2007 model.

I also knew that traffic would tank. I warned Tim Bowlder, the JP chief executive, of this face to face saying the JP redesign would lose “millions of page views and hundreds of thousands of users”. My warning was ignored and a JP apparatchik later explained that I had not understood how good their plans were.

Well, we can finally see how good their plans were. Audited traffic figures for scotsman.com have finally escaped into the light of day. According to ABCe, the site I edited for seven years now gets about 2 million unique users a month.

DON Brash and Nicky Hager may not see eye to eye on many issues - but they agree media coverage of the election campaign has been inadequate. They say high profile MPs Winston Peters, Peter Dunne, Bill English and Clayton Cosgrove have all had accusations levelled at them late in the campaign, with little or no analysis provided. Former National Party leader Dr Brash believes the media has a role in probing potential hypocrisy in a candidate’s statements, provided they give the candidate the

Last week was our crazy conference week; now we have our crazy earnings week. Check out our earnings channel for Q3 results from News Corp., Disney, Time Warner, and many more. We also have interviews with Disney CFO Tom Staggs and new Yahoo SVP Jeff Dossett by our own Staci D. Kramer.

Top headlines of the week from mocoNews.net and paidContentUK:

mocoNews:

– Microsoft Trying To Shiv the Potential Google-Verizon Wireless Search Deal

– Obama Used Mobile Advertising To Target Youth And Voters In Key Battleground States

– FCC Approves White Space Use For Wireless Broadband

– Nokia Slashes 600 Jobs; Targets Emerging Markets With Internet Services And New Handsets

– Sprint Decides To Keep Nextel After Potential Deal Unravels

paidContent:UK:

– Virgin Media Considers Content Divison Sell-Off To Become Comms Platform, Not Content Producer

– EMI Music To Reorg; Divided Into Three Global Units; EMI.com’s Limited Scope

– Babelgum COO Leaves In Latest High-Level Shakeup

– Election Section Perfection?: News Sites’ Presidential Strategies Prize Blogs, Tweets, Maps

– Industry Moves: Reed Elsevier Picks Smith For CEO; £3.6M Possible Salary, RBI Sale Top Of To-Do List

Briefing notes from our research director Lauren Rich Fine are still available: Positive Bias: The Problem With the Latest Online Ad Forecasts | Online Fantasy Sports: Growth Outlook Intact

Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page

Overseas web TV viewers could soon be watching Eastenders or Dr Who on the BBC’s VOD iPlayer, says the Beeb’s director of new media and technology, Erik Huggers. Speaking at Screen Digest’s conference on the future of online distribution (via MediaGuardian), he said that the iPlayer had built up 248 million views since its Christmas Day launch last year and said the barriers to non-UK viewers could be lifted. “The internet is, by definition, a global medium, yet today we are artificially blocking international access to the iPlayer. That’s a problem, in my mind, and a big challenge for the industry,” he said.

It’s a nice idea, but the question remains: what access model would the Beeb opt for? The iPlayer is funded through the British license fee, so would foreign viewers be expected to pay for the service? Or perhaps with the help of commercial division BBC Worldwide, views could be monetized? BBCWW this week began selling BBC TV shows on the French iTunes store for download from €1.99 per episode. If this same content were given away for free, it could hinder BBCWW’s foreign business plan. Another option would be to emulate the Virgin Media-iPlayer carriage deal; Virgin subscribers have watched 49 million videos since June.

– Multi-platform downloads: Huggers says another persistent problem for the iPlayer, multi-platform functionality, will be solved by the end of the year with a download manager compatible with every OS. PC users make up 85 percent of the iPlayer audience, Mac users 10 percent and minority platforms Linux and the Nintendo Wii users make up one percent each.

Rafat adds: Yoohoooo….if it happens.

Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!

Rhett Smith discusses the Obama campaign’s use of sites like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter: “Obama dominated the social media world…which is where the young voters live. It’s a world they inhabit, trust, socialize, converse, and confer with one another.” Related posts:Applying the (virtual) brakesRhett Smith shares how to tell if you’re a social…Contrary to popular belief …… young evangelicals may be less likely to vote Democrat…Do something about human traffickingFrom Southeast Asia, S

This piece originally appeared in w00tonomy’s Content Marketing Watch column.

Hotfoot from ScotWeb2 - a get-together of those with an interest in the public sector and the internet. Organised by Alex Stobart, a recovering civil servant,

The highlights, apart from my workshop on making the most of content, were talks by James Munro of PatientOpinon and Simon Dickson of Puffbox.

The whole media world is diminished by the row over Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross and Andrew Sachs. I don’t mean the whole “offensive or funny” stramash but the disgraceful absence of ”who is man with beard” jokes.

Come on, people. We have Manuel. We have a man with beard. This is basic stuff.

Further, the transcripts are useless as the “offensive” elements are starred out. We are told that Ross shouted to Sachs’s answerphone: “He ****** your granddaughter!” or, if the media outlet’s being daring: “f*****”. 

But if we’re going to get properly outraged we need to know what the overpaid choob actually said because that affects how serious the whole row is. Was it “shagged”? Because that’s no biggie. With the “f*****” version we know it was probably “fucked”? But maybe it was “fisted” or even “felched” both of which bring different layers of seriousness to the party.

God bless the Grauniad that at least dared tell its readers what they should be offended about. And I’d bless the Beeb for doing the same but I know they’ll hang a functionary out to dry and give the alleged stars the mildest of slaps on the wrist.

I have just read Arthur MacMillan’s excellent autopsy of the corpse of Scottish newspapers in the British Journalism Review. It is a forensic examination of what’s gone wrong and why there is no hope. And it rightly fingers the muppets and Johnston Press and Gannet who have brought what we laughingly call Scotland’s quality papers to their knees.

However, the article falls into the trap of by implication exonerating Andrew Neil, who is as responsible for the demise of the Hootsmon as the overpromoted local newspaper crowd. While JP has had a massively detrimental effect on the paper and the website, Neil cannot escape blame. Here’s why: