The Scotsman is dying. So is The Herald. Here are some notes towards a plan to save them – and all newspapers. I’d like to see a consortium to put this into practice and save Scotland’s native, quality, national press for the nation. This isn’t born out of delusion but rather a few discussions I’ve had with like-minded senior journalists who believe that the money can be raised and that this is last chance to save these two titles.
From the blog of my company, w00tonomy:
We are delighted to announce that, in conjunction with our consortium partners The Union and Conscia, that w00tonomy has been selected for the Scottish Government’s digital marketing services framework.
This is a major achievement for a young agency and we are delighted. Along with our consortium partners, we look forward to providing the Scottish Government and other bodies using the roster with our services:
Turbocharge content to optimise appeal to online customers.
Creating messages that interest customers rather than messages they ignore.
We make online spend work harder. We deliver higher returns on online investment through the use of targeted, quality content to build a lasting relationship with your target audience.
If you’d like to know more, please contact us.
Hurrah for those very decent people at The List – Edinburgh and Glasgow’s listings magazine. Their website won “Best Online Presence” at the 2008 Scottish Magazine Awards.
So many hearty gratz to my many former scotsman.com colleagues who work there and to Robin Hodge, their all round good egg publisher.
Yay for the good guys!
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="307" caption="Labour's Lindsay Roy"]
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Labour’s Lindsay Roy has won the Glenrothers by-election, beating the SNP by more than 6,700. The Nats had been widely expected to win the seat despite the fact that it was once safe Labour territory and is next door to Gordon Brown’s constituency.
The result is important for two reasons:
- It makes it more likely that Gordon Brown will lead Labour into the next UK General Election. While a challenge has been unlikely since the arrival of the credit crunch, a defeat in his kailyard would have weakened him within the party.
- It makes an independent Scotland less likely – as the result marks a serious brake on the momentum of the Scottish National Party.
At my agency w00tonomy, we’re very excited by the upcoming ScotWeb2 unconference on Hallowe’en at Edinburgh University for “those interested in learning about Web 2 from practitioners, government and business users”.
It is “an informal, bar camp style event allowing participants to listen, network and share experiences with those who have designed and are managing Web 2 services. Speakers and workshop leaders from Health, Business, Web design, Colleges and Universities, Social Enterprises, Social Media, Journalism, Government and Civic Society”.
The event is being organised by Alex Stobbart of the Scottish Government (née Executive). Alex is an evangelist for the opportunities offered by the web. He is a giant floating brain who has recruited a coven of like-minded individuals within the SG who meet at the dead of night in cowled hoods, exchanging arcane passwords and sharing forbidden knowledge about tags, tweetsand user content…
Actually I made that bit up – I got carried away with the fact the event is on samhainn. But Alex is an evangelist and does lead a high-powered group of colleagues who are keen to embrace the openness that the new web offers. Having worked closely on Scottish Government projects, we at w00tonomy have met many civil servants who “get it” and cheer Alex’s efforts to mobilise them.
However, ScotWeb2 is a separate project for Alex and BT are backing it. Tickets are available from Eventbrite.
The speakers include Simon Dickson: an e-government consultant and “Whitehall’s first full-time website specialist back in 1995″; Iain Henderson from personal data protector MyDex; Ross Ferguson from Dog Digital; and w00tonomy’s endlessly self-promoting Stewart Kirkpatrick, who will talk about how to optimise content to get messages across.
The stunning events in Glasgow East show that Scottish Labour needs to hurry up and choose its new leader so the new incumbent can be hounded out in the wake of the party’s shaming defeat.
My second podcast. Longer than the first, now with added gratuitous and unsubstantiated claims of bestiality. Maybe.
Another one bites the dust. Scottish Lib Dem leader, Nicol Stephen, has just quit. Says he wants “more time with my family”. Hmmmm, what does that really mean?
My money’s on Tavish Scott to succeed him.
I believe this is the first anyway… It’s about my experiences being embedded in the civil service for a while.
Sour Alba podcast 1: Historic first and the civil service [ 2:23 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadFlickr Photos
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My tweets- calgacus: Useful Scots word: peerie http://t.co/payqnk3q #history #scotland
- calgacus: Good coach, poor selector – Robinson lives up to that harsh tag again http://t.co/NpfojEnK #rugby #scotland
- calgacus: Up for grabs: six possible recipients of Goodwin’s cast-off knighthood http://t.co/qhTCFfGt #ukpolitics #rbs
