EDF Energy’s #PrettyCurious campaign to encourage girls’ interest in STEM was controversial from its launch last September, but now they’ve really taken the biscuit to end all biscuits by awarding their #PrettyCuriousChallenge prize to a boy. Before we go further, I have to emphasise that this is not the fault of the boy, Josh, at all. Nor is anyone saying… Read more →
You’re a journalist. What would you do if you lost your job tomorrow? For many journalists – including me – this isn’t a hypothetical question, and it’s why I urge you to have a Plan B.
Never have we had so much choice in terms of news, information, music and entertainment. The democratisation of production brought by digital technology has made it easier than ever for people to create content, but it has also made it more difficult than ever to get paid to create it. This cannot last.
In a recent piece for The Media Briefing in the UK, I ask the question about which newspapers will survive. It is doubtless that newspapers are under pressure right now, but after nearly two years managing a group of small newspapers for Gannett, I realised that there are actually some newspapers that have a real fighting chance to survive. What things do they have in common?
Back in March, I said that I was hiring, looking for journalists ready to create the future of media, and now I find myself looking to my future. On Tuesday, my position was eliminated with immediate effect. I’ve been at the cutting edge of digital media for two decades, and if you need a proven digital media leader, let’s talk.
I’ve started writing US focused pieces for the UK’s Media Briefing, and my most recent piece looks at the podcast renaissance. Everyone has focused on listening on mobile devices, but one of the big things driving the resurgence of podcasting is the thing we drive – connected cars.
My good friend Steve Yelvington highlighted this great post by John E. McIntyre at the Baltimore Sun: More more with less. He was commenting on the move by the Boston Globe to create a new class of multi-platform editors and the response that it had in the industry. The idea of doing more with less or less with less is… Read more →
Tom Grubisich of hyperlocal news analysis site, Street Fight Mag, says that to save local journalism, we need not only revenue but also vision. Grubisich lays out one vision. The one challenge with these grand visions for local media is that editorially they stil need to be relevant in the communities that they serve.
City University London journalism professor George Brock has criticised Trinity-Mirror’s Newsroom 3.1 plan saying that their focus on metrics has been discredited. Metrics aren’t bad in and of themselves, but George is right to point out that volume metrics alone – clicks and unique users – aren’t enough.
There are some companies that appear to be native to the web, not just on the web but of the web. Often these companies were early adopters, building websites whilst others called the web a ‘fad’, starting blogs before most people knew what they were, and using social media in a way that makes them appear to have a sound… Read more →
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With a decade of social media experience, it’s fair to say that Suw is one of the UK’s social media pioneers. She has worked with many household names, helping clients worldwide use social tools for collaboration and communication internally and to build customer relationships externally. She has a comprehensive understanding of strategy and implementation, with a depth of experience that is very hard to find in such a young field of expertise.
Suw is now focusing on sharing her expertise, and has launched an online course teaching small- and medium-sized businesses how to write a robust social media strategy tailored to their own needs.
Suw writes fiction, available only via her monthly newsletter, and is fascinated by crafts such as bookbinding, goldwork embroidery and bobbin lace. Chocolate and Vodka is her personal blog where she writes about writing and any $random_subjects that catch her eye. And yes, she's married to Kevin.
Kevin brings almost 20 years of cutting edge journalism experience to his work. He is currently a regional executive editor for Gannett Wisconsin Media, overseeing two newsrooms, the Sheboygan Press and HTR Media.
Before joining Gannett, he held a number of pioneering positions with news organizations. In 1998, he became the BBC’s first online journalist based outside of the UK, covering the US for its award winning news website. In 2005, he went to London for the BBC where he developed a blogging strategy for BBC News, served on a corporate-wide blog and podcast steering committee, helped launch a program on BBC 5Live covering weblogs and podcasts and was on the team that launched the interactive radio program World Have Your Say on the BBC World Service.
From 2006 to 2010, he worked at The Guardian as its first blogs editor and then as its digital research editor. While blogs editor, he launched a culture blogs network, a successful food blog and an environmental blog network that incorporated both Guardian and independent content. As digital research editor, he was responsible for monitoring key developments in digital media and evaluating their value to Guardian journalists and audiences.
From June 2012 through July 2013, Kevin was a member of the management team of the Media Development Investment Fund and editor of the Fund's Knowledge Bridge site and newsletter. The Media Development Investment Fund invests in independent news organizations in emerging democracies, and the Knowledge Bridge project is designed to help these news organizations make the digital transition.
From 2010 until he joined MDIF in 2012, he worked as a freelance journalist, digital media consultant and digital journalism trainer working with news organizations including Al Jazeera, Reed Business Information, Czech TV and CNN International.
