Posted by jameswdcrawford on February 5, 2010 under Media | 
Wordpress plugin geekery
If you don’t use WordPress then I suggest you don’t read any further as this is a HUGELY GEEKY post. ***WARNING***
I am testing a new WordPress plugin by Roger Stringer, which “Yahoo Query Language to perform semantic analysis of your post text and suggest tags for you.”
I have written this post to test how it works. I’ll let you know if it useful! Here is a link to Roger and his blog.
http://www.rogerstringer.com/2010/02/03/wordpress-plugin-yql-auto-tagger/
Roger also created a news curation plug in which I have used. Clever chap.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on November 14, 2009 under Opinion |
Paid for content? Removal of News International from Google in a matter of months? Murdoch yesterday repeated his comments about Google Search and is either, in his own words, ‘going to lead the industry’ into a brave new world, or stuff his business model up for good. Either that or he has a plan C….
One thing is for sure: the industry has a problem. Citizen journalism, online media, advances in technology and many, many other well trodden ‘challenges’ are hitting advertising revenues hard. Micro payments based on site visits is a solution that is worth considering. That way media channels are rewarded for providing rich and interesting content.
I for one would be happy to pay for a (small) licence from which micro payments are made to content providers of all shapes and sizes. While I love the free nature of the internet, I recognise quality content needs to be paid for. However, if Murdoch thinks users will subscribe to each of his news sites then I think he is going to run into trouble. Even if he consolidated all his titles into a Sky Broadcasting type package, the idea of subscribing is not that appealing.
For pure news outlets at least, the power (but maybe not income) is moving away from the media and back to the journalist, and bloggers are beginning to ‘monetise’ their sites. All journalists need now is training and cost effective technology.
For tabloid titles such as The Sun, the power is migrating to the celebrities. Famous faces are now the ‘intellectual property’ or content and it is the celebrities the tabloids contain, the likes of Jordan and Peter, that are generating income from the tabloids.
Anyway, by charging for content, Murdoch isn’t doing anything new. Manchester Confidential beat him to it and is charging for content. Apparently the move is going well. Good luck to them! It might work for niche or regional communities, of which Manchester Confidential is one, but I don’t think the same process will work for news outlets. Manchester Confidential offers readers more than just editorial, with offers and personal insight keeping its members coming back for more. Apart from MySpace, Murdoch is a long way from creating a similar offer.
Tags: Blogging, Celebrity, communities, Content, Google Search, How-Do, licence, Manchester Confidential, micro payment, Murdoch, News Corp, subscription
Posted by jameswdcrawford on November 11, 2009 under Blog |
The Blog Paper is a new online publication with a difference: it aims to print the best postings every month in a bona fide publication. It is very nearly a brilliant idea.
I love its premise of taking the best content from the Blogosphere and turning it into a magazine.
Some might say the concept of printing the very best blogs goes against the blogosphere’s bedrock principles of immediacy and shareability and ‘social networking’. Others will say that by taking the publication into print, the Blog Paper is paradoxically mirroring the media that ‘online’ is supposed to replace and the content will be ‘old news’ by the time the publication hits the streets.
However, while I recognise this argument, I really like the concept. Call me old fashioned, but I like to read from good old paper. In this intermediate period, between the predicted demise of printed publications and the time when we will all own handheld electronic reading devices, the Blog Paper has a great proposition.
If The Blog Paper is successful in printing its first edition, it will also expose thousands of people to blogs new content.
So, why is it not a brilliant idea? It is good, but not brilliant. Well, the publication is only available in London. I know start up costs will be tight, but I am sure someone somewhere would distribute it in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow too.
It would also nudge closer to brilliance if uploading onto this site was easier. As it stands I think it takes a lot longer than I am used to with Posterous, RSS Feeds or the WordPress publicise tool, which lets you email content. If this glitch was improved upon then I think the site would become incredibly popular.
I hope the Blog Paper does well. I can’t wait to see its first printed edition! Maybe someone will post one to me?
http://www.theblogpaper.co.uk
Posted by jameswdcrawford on November 2, 2009 under PR |
If you blog, have you joined NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)? The idea is that during the month of November everyone who joins NaBloPoMo has to make at least one post every day during the month of November.
Yes it is a bit prescriptive and I’m a believer in quality over quantity when it comes to blogging, but that being said I am going to take part in NaBloPoMo because… well… it just caught my attention.
Actually there was a little more to it than NaBloPoMo appealing to my whimsical side. The community on the site looks quite interesting (have a look at my profile by clicking here). Perhaps the community might generate some additional traffic too?
In addition to the community, if I can find a few more interesting blogs to read in the process of taking part in NaBloPoMo then the exercise has been productive.
Looking at the community there are already quite a few people from Manchester already signed up and there are thousands of blogs to discover.
If you are really NUTS you can also enter NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month!
If you want to find out more about NaBloPoMo, you can do by clicking here.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on October 30, 2009 under Public Relations |
“Time and tide waits for no man,” so the saying goes, and nowhere are man hours more precious than in the world of work, where the management of seconds, minutes and hours has become a science. So the following guide is useful:
- when encouraging clients to use social media
- for consultancies trying to keep staff use of Social Media productive
Click here for the full article
The guide might be teaching granny to suck eggs for some, but no doubt most of those involved in Social Media will have a time management conversation sooner or later.
Posted by jameswdcrawford on October 27, 2009 under Journalism |
We, on behalf of The Carphone Warehouse, are beginning to undertake a project to encourage journalists to blog. I’ve only been blogging for the past five months but have found the whole process very rewarding. Hopefully a few journalists will start blogging who never thought they would!
They are better placed than me to come up with compelling content!
This presentation starts off slowly but by slide seven there is some good content. I should also say it is not my presentation, but lifted from Slideshare.
[slideshare id=1050992&doc=UsersjwilpersDocumentsConsultingINTERNSHIPPresentationsShouldJournalistsBlogJohnWilpers-090220062104-phpapp01]
Hi. I am James Crawford, a PR man. Media relations is my specialism, but public relations is changing and the internet is at the heart of it.
I'm a Manchester dweller and lover of the media. I have too much music, support Manchester United and adore all things French.
I currently work for a Citypress, Manchester's biggest and best PR consultancy, but all the thoughts on here are my own and nothing to do with my employers.
