March 5, 2010 – Hello Curns

Pay Walls Will Save Newspapers

Every man and his dog, if he works in digital media, has an opinion on this one. Pay walls will, or will not, save newspapers, magazines, books and any other form of printed word. E-readers, iPads and digital paper are, or are not, the saviour of the free press. So, why shouldn’t I wade in here? I may as well be shouted down by those who think that paper has, or hasn’t, got a future.

And so as not to be sidetracked, I’ll repeat my first prediction that pay walls will lead newspapers and magazines into a better digital world (which may, or may not, save their business models in the long run).

My second prediction is that pay walls will be removed after, for argument’s sake, twelve months.

In my end-of-year predictions, I suggested pay walls would be good for advertising because an engaged, paying audience is, generally, attractive to advertisers. And it’s far too early in the year to be retracting such suggestions, so I’ll be sticking with it. But, upon further reflection, I think there will be a second advantage to short-term pay walls, and it’s not the pay bit that’s useful but the wall itself; the act of registration and identification that will aid newspapers’ business models.

The subscription money may or may not be insignificant. But in a world where advertising is highly targeted to us as people, be that by our tracked behaviours or the things we write – or the games we play -in social media, knowing more about audiences is becoming a necessity to deliver advertising online. But most media organisations don’t know much about me as a user at all. I read anonymously with only an IP address acting as a proxy for who I am.

But look at the market they are playing in. According to Hitwise, getting on for 6% of all UK web visits are to Facebook. And Facebook knows a lot about me because I tell them through all my daily interactions. Google accounts for nearly 9% of all visits, which, while admittedly being search-based (i.e., en route to somewhere else), is still giving them tremendous insight into my behaviours.

Pay walls will start to give newspapers a better insight into their audiences, and with that data, they’ll start to be able to attract much more highly targeted media. Once that data is put to use, newspapers will realise they need to tear down the walls to grab a big audience, but those people will start to be given reason to identify themselves so that advertising can be targeted properly. And then another of my predictions will come true: it’ll be all about the data.

It is for that reason that I think pay walls may save newspapers and magazines.

I also predict that personal jet packs will be the future of transportation by 2011.

Erasure: The Nightbird Tour

From the moment Andy Bell appears on stage with angel wings you know they are back on form.

I’ve seen Erasure a couple of times in concert. The last time was the Other People’s Songs tour. While I enjoyed the album, I wasn’t so sure about the concert: they seemed to be going through the motions a little more than in previous times. So, it was with some interest that I got tickets to The Nightbird Tour at Hammersmith Odeon (erasuregig.com).

From the moment Andy Bell appears on stage with angel wings you know they are back on form. The Nightbird material fits very well into the overall set; the feeling of a ‘show’ is back and the audience was – most definitely – behind Vince and Andy. The first number ‘No Doubt’ leads into ‘Hideaway’ which I don’t recall seeing performed for a very long time and is one of my favourites. But we also got ‘A Little Respect’, ‘Who Needs Love Like That’ and ‘Blue Savannah’ plus a Vince performing ‘Rapture’.

The concerts are recorded so that you can get a copy of the show you went to see. I shall be having one of those, for I had a superb time.

They Have The Cool Jobs

Flickr has photographs from the Rufus Wainwright session on 6 Music.

Rufus Wainwright plays downstairs at work...

Many years ago, I spent a small amount of time working for BBC local radio. We had minor celebrities pass through the studios, but they never phased me. When I first came to London, I worked for a company that had studio facilities. A few bigger celebrities came through in the years I worked there and, again, I was not too bothered. Tom, however, got to see Rufus Wainwright play at 6 Music, and that makes me very jealous. Everybody loves his new album (which is out here on Monday), and you can find him all over the press this weekend, including, and I find it odd, The Times’ Health and Fitness section. Right now, however, I am listening to They Might Be Giants from 1990. Unconnected, I know, but brilliant nonetheless.

Formula 1 2004 Race Calendar For Outlook Import

Yet again, I have created a CSV file to import the new Formula One racing season calendar into your Outlook calendar so you never miss a race (unless I got my timings wrong).

Michael Schumacher, driving his Ferrari, won the 2003 Formula One championship on the final race. This weekend, it all starts again with the Australian Grand Prix. It’s about the only sport I follow with anything like an interest, but I won’t be up at 2am for the start of ITV ‘s coverage. I may, however, be around at 1.30pm for the repeat showing.

And once again this year, I have trawled the net looking for a list of the year’s races in a format easily importable into Outlook. And once again, I have been frustrated because I couldn’t find it anywhere. Many years ago, before I went Corporate and joined the merry band of worldwide Outlook users, I used Time and Chaos– an excellent organiser. They have a transportable record set ready for the 2004 Formula One season. Yahoo enables you to import the race list into your Yahoo calendar(although the race order on the Yahoo site is different from the official list on the FIA site). None of which is really any use to me.

So, once again, I have created a basic .csv file containing the data, which can easily be imported into Outlook. After last year’s rant, I said I would learn the vCal format, but I didn’t, so it’s a plain-old .csv file for you. If you want to import F1 races into your Outlook calendar, please feel free to use the file.

Once again, I took the race order and timings from the Official FIA site. This year, however, I have modified the times so that they reflect British Summer Time (GMT+1) where required. I can, therefore, use it. I have noted the time zone in the ‘description’ field in Outlook so you can change it locally if you wish. I couldn’t find any time zone field in the .csv format.

If you check different sources of the race calendar, you’ll find slight variations in the timing. Don’t blame me if you miss it and, in my best continuity announcer’s voice, check local listings.

Also, this year I have added information about the distance and laps in the location field.

I have provided the file as a .zip, so you must first extract the .csv from that. Then, in Outlook, you will need to go to the File menu and import the data (import from another program or file) and place it in the calendar. The file is provided as is, and you use it at your own risk. I don’t know any way you can remove it without deleting each entry individually. This year, I have included a category name ‘Formula One’ so you can easily find all the entries this file creates. It should be easier to find them in Outlook and remove them if needed. If you already have a Formula One category in your Outlook calendar, you may want to edit the file before importing so you can change the category name. The file is fairly simple, and you should be able to read it in any spreadsheet program (and even some text file readers will read it).

As always, your comments are welcome, as are suggestions, where an official version of this file can be found.

Real Player For Palm Devices

Do you know how hard it is to find the link to the RealPlayer for Palm devices? It’s not very well-signposted. Perhaps, if I post a link here, search engines will improve their ranking! If you’re looking for the Real Player for Palm connected devices (Treo 600, Tungsten C, Tungsten T3, Tungsten T2, Tungsten T, Tungsten E or Zire 71), then you should visit the Real Networks page devoted to it!

Additional note: the user instructions for RealPlayer for the Palm are also available.

Thoughts on Blogspace

I may be attaching a misplaced purity to the weblog concept. I wouldn’t impose those same ideals on the population as a whole, so why should I do it to the blogosphere? Freedom to write whatever I want is a fine thing, and perhaps I am imposing concepts of integrity that are incompatible with this freedom?

Yesterday’s post started a whole train of thoughts about the concept of blog integrity and why should we care? I am sure it’s the idealist in me that is attaching a great deal of importance to the billions of words blogged on a daily basis. Perhaps I shouldn’t care because the power of blog-space is that people write opinions and thoughts in a way that they want to. It’s not for anybody else to say that I shouldn’t be allowed to promote a new mobile ‘phone because either I want to or the company sent me a free ‘phone.

I believe I might be attaching a purity to the weblog concept that is misplaced. I wouldn’t place those same ideals on the population as a whole, so why should I do it to the blogged world? Freedom to write whatever I want is a fine thing, and perhaps I am imposing concepts of integrity that are incompatible with this freedom?

I’m not sure where these thoughts are going, but they are challenging my blog ideals. I mentioned in one of my posts yesterday to the UK Bloggers list that, perhaps, blogs were just catching up with other media. I suspect that is true, but in a way I hadn’t thought of – the fact that they are as exploitable, commercially, as any other media.

Where does this leave my online ideals?

In related reading, Rebecca Blood talks about these issues in Weblog Ethics.