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Opinion | Features
Disclosure in Social Media: How transparent should bloggers be?
In this guest post, blogger and digital creative Laura McWhinnie argues for more disclosure in the blogosphere.
The bloggersphere has always been a bit like the Wild West. Bloggers could post about products to their heart’s content without having to disclose their relationship with the brand. This meant that consumers had no idea who was behind the marketing messages influencing their purchasing decisions. But in 2009 that all changed
Liars, cheats and thieves
Is our industry full of cheats and liars or do people of honour who stand by their word still exist in business? In an exclusive that first appeared in Encore, Cameron Boon investigates. The recent court case involving Paul Fishlock suing his former employer The Campaign Palace brought into focus more than just the struggle of one man. It highlighted that there are some in adland whose word cannot always be relied upon.
Q&A with Adshel's Rob Atkinson
Online trading is the next big thing says Rob Atkinson in a piece that first appeared in Encore. Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
Harold Mitchell because of his influence and the footprint he has left. He’s built a huge brand in Mitchells, offloaded it into Aegis, Aegis has obviously done extremely well to be then sold on to Dentsu. So if you think about it, he is very much a father figure of the industry.
Making it overseas
Is the best way of being successful in Australia not be here at all? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Lee Zachariah speaks to Aussies making it big abroad.I always wanted to work in New York,” says Julian Cole. “I thought it was the number one place to work in advertising; a lot of the best campaigns were coming out of there. So I moved over and was lucky enough to have a couple of interviews in the first couple of weeks.”
Cole’s story is indicative of the somewhat contentious idea that the best way to be successful in Australia is to not be in Australia any more.
Got a book in you?
From journos to ad execs and PRs, these days everyone seems to have a book in them. But what does it take to get published and will you actually make any money? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill finds out.Attention wannabe authors. Forget big fat advance cheques and living off royalties. The reality of having a book published today is another story altogether. There are only two reasons you should even consider sitting down at your computer to bash out a manuscript – passion or profile.
Savage counsel
In an article that first appeared in Encore, Chris Savage tackles your career and agency dilemmas in his weekly advice column.Hi Chris,
My clients seem to be demanding more and more from us. At the same time, it seems many of the younger people in our industry simply don’t have the client servicing skills my generation grew up with. How do we instill in our executives some of the good old-fashioned behaviours that would keep a client happy and loyal?
Fake it til' you make it... as an ad agency receptionist
From dressing the part to playing the gatekeeper, Leo Burnett Sydney’s Susie Henry tells us how to make it as the face of adland in a piece that first appeared in Encore.What does a receptionist in an ad agency actually do?
Well, there’s the frantic every-day, all-day stuff of deliveries, courier bookings, doing expenses for directors – always challenging – plus arranging all the travel. But one of my main jobs is counselling the account service people. I also keep up with all sports information to discuss with our sports-loving clients – because who wants to be bored while they’re waiting? And I know how they like their coffee. You need to know everyone – from accounting to HR. I’m also the go-to for all catering and sending flowers.
Whose views skew the news? Media chiefs ready to vote out Labor, while reporters lean left
Most journalists lean left-of-centre, says Folker Hanusch of the University of the Sunshine Coast, in a post first published on The Conversation.Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political leanings will no doubt be debated in the lead-up to September’s federal election, our study has also found other largely unscrutinised biases remain – particularly whose views disproportionately shape the news.
It's time for a new New Wave in the film world
Government funding bodies are lazy and decadent, says industry veteran Michael Thornhill but in a piece that first appeared in Encore, Ed Gibbs begs to differ.I vividly remember the time I first saw Animal Kingdom, David Michod’s breathtaking labour-of-love feature debut. The press screening was half empty, despite the film winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance just months earlier, in 2010. Yet its superb performances, stylistic flourishes and overall polish left me speechless. Could this really be a feature debut, an Australian one at that, I wondered, almost out loud? It seemed too good to be true.
Going cold turkey on an agency addiction
Life is sweet for freelance writer Max Kitchen, but in a feature that first appeared in Encore, he admits his struggle against returning to the agency fold.I’ve never taken heroin. But I suspect if I had, the temptation to try it again would not be too dissimilar to the lure of returning to agency life.
Can sport save Ten?
First there was the Grand Prix. Next came the reported $500m bid for cricket rights, then Ten secured the 2014 winter Olympics. So, can sport save the ailing network? In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Nic Christensen investigates.The television sports rights bidding process is a bit like a game of poker.
Check, fold or bet. Those were the options for the Ten Network last week when it had to finalise its bid for the cricket rights.
Andy Lark: good for the marketing of marketing
I can still remember the first story I wrote about Andy Lark, when it emerged that he was to be the new chief marketing officer of CommBank.
It was immediately clear that Australia was about to meet an interesting marketer, one who blogged and tweeted and thanks to his time at Dell in the US was digitally savvy. Even two years ago, that was a big deal. The fact that he also had a stint in public relations gave him an absolutely intriguing background before he even arrived.
Storming the media barricades - advice for young journalists
This week Mumbrella’s Nic Christensen, who began his career four years ago, gave the keynote address to would-be journalists at the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance’s Student Day. This is an edited version of his speech.Good afternoon, I can remember distinctly the last time I was in this room.
It was 2009 and I was sitting where you are. I’d come to this event, a friend and myself — from memory we sat up the back — and I can remember at the time wondering if I’d ever get a job as a journalist.
It was only four years ago and then as now getting a job was ultra competitive but I’m not sure there was quite as much media ‘doom and gloom’ as there is now…
Paywalls will help fund campaigning journalism
In this guest post, News Limited’s group editorial director Campbell Reid responds to the views of ninemsn’s Hal Crawford that the company’s push into metered paywalls is about data rather than dollars.Hal Crawford is both right and wrong in his article which argued that our digital subscription plans are all about the data.
Fake it 'til you make it... as a features editor
Cosmo’s Kate Leaver tells us how to bluff it in her job in a feature that first appeared in Encore.What do you do, as a features editor?
Really, play with words and ideas all day. At any one time, we’re working across three issues of the mag – getting one on its way to the printers, pooling all the words together for another, and planning the issue after that. It’s busy but it’s a pretty magnificent process.
Publisher – We’re moving to subs model because we’re better than biased and inaccurate bloggers
NZ title National Business Review is the latest to move to a paid subscription model for some of its online content.
The title says it will be asking for $149 for six months’ access to the title’s premium online content.
In a letter to subscribers to NBR’s daily email, publisher Barry Colman said that about 20% of the content – “the best news stories, scoops and commentary pieces” – would become subscription only. He said:
“As you know, there has been endless discussion for a number of years about the crazy model adopted by newspapers in most parts of the free world in which they pay the enormous costs of running professional newsrooms only to give their content away free – while at the same time slashing newsroom numbers to save money as circulation and advertising revenues fall.
“And to add to the madness it has been the aggregators that have profited the most from the supply of that free news copy. Worse still the model has spawned a huge band of amateur, untrained, unqualified bloggers who have swarmed over the internet pouring out columns of unsubstantiated “facts” and hysterical opinion.
“Most of these “citizen journalists” don’t have access to decision makers and are infamous for their biased and inaccurate reporting on almost any subject under the sun (while invariably criticising professional news coverage whose original material they depend on to base their diatribes).
“It is only a matter of time before the model collapses. The alternative is newsrooms decimated to the point of processing public relations handouts or unedited government propaganda from their fully staffed team of spin doctors.”
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Comments
16 Jul 09
4:02 pm
>>The alternative is newsrooms decimated to the point of processing public relations handouts or unedited government propaganda from their fully staffed team of spin doctors.”<<
hasn't read a newspaper in a while, has he?
16 Jul 09
4:05 pm
what he’s saying isn’t entirely incorrect though. a bit sweeping, perhaps, but if you look at many of the business blogs they’re exactly that.
16 Jul 09
4:19 pm
Bollocks
16 Jul 09
4:24 pm
Them sound like fighting words.
To pay or not to pay seems to be the question on everyone’s lips and the subject has certainly polarised opinions.
The current model clearly isn’t working as well as publishers initially hoped so it’s good to see them trying something different.
Time will tell if it works but it’ll be very interesting to see the audience figures over the next 6-12 months.
16 Jul 09
4:44 pm
he’s right, most business blogs are simply uninformed opinion and couldn’t exist without news gathering and editing by skilled journalists and editors
16 Jul 09
4:58 pm
stu, I think that comment could be extended to nearly all blogs out there.
16 Jul 09
5:02 pm
“the model has spawned a huge band of amateur, untrained, unqualified bloggers”
since when did you need a qualification to start a blog?
16 Jul 09
5:04 pm
I’m looking forward to the business model of commercial legacy media collapsing!
16 Jul 09
5:27 pm
No doubt the way newspapers work now isn’t sustainable.
But aren’t newspapers simply a way to connect something people want (journalism) with the people that want it?
Surely the balance of power now lies with the journalists, who can now work singly or in co-operatives (just as musicians like Radiohead have done) to provide their skills without a publisher taking the lion’s share of the proceeds?
It’s not the journalism that’s obsolete. Publishers charging people for content will simply hasten their own demise.
16 Jul 09
11:44 pm
“Surely the balance of power now lies with the journalists, who can now work singly or in co-operatives (just as musicians like Radiohead have done) to provide their skills without a publisher taking the lion’s share of the proceeds?”
It’s true, now they are entirely empowered to make 100% of the nothing they’ll be paid to write their blogs.
17 Jul 09
9:37 am
I’ve always found it ironic that journalists say bloggers are unqualified when nearly all journalists start the trade having studied journalism…and not the subject area they write on.
17 Jul 09
9:46 am
Like most ecommerce offerings – online subscriptions has rarely lived up to expectations. Readers will always expect more (quality and quantity) online.
17 Jul 09
2:13 pm
Good luck to them.
I hope they can make that work but lets see a follow up article with an accurate number of paid subscribers, uniques and page impressions in 3 months compared to their current figures.
That would be very interesting and helpful for everyone.
17 Jul 09
2:26 pm
And once again – no one is addressing the key issue here – that someone, somewhere has to pay the cost of creating content. I do not believe that the future lies in the hands of an army of unpaid amateurs. At its heart this move is about recovering costs. I think it will fail, just as every other attempt to take back what was once free has failed. There are only a handful of publishers making the paid online subscription model work in this region right now – such as Crikey – I just stumped up for my annual subscription because I truly value it – and I was never able to get it free of charge and so therefor don’t resent paying for it.
17 Jul 09
2:48 pm
Duncan, you shouldn’t find it ironic “that journalists say bloggers are unqualified when nearly all journalists start the trade having studied journalism…and not the subject area they write on”. Journalism at its core is about the news gathering and reporting process, not subject matter expertise. The skill is in investigation, evaluation and communication and is transferable across topics. Naturally, with experience comes knowledge and greater critical capacity, hence the the rise of the opinion columnist. The problem with most bloggers is that go straight to opinion yet possess no journalistic skills nor the occupational prerogative to strive for balance. In any event. having knowledge of a subject doesn’t qualify a person to write about it – as we can see from the banal or prejudiced content of most blogs, which are nothing more than vanity projects.
17 Jul 09
3:15 pm
A bit of a tangent here, but I’m finding it hard to reconcile these hallowed journalists referred to in the comments with this recent article on Mumbrella http://mumbrella.com.au/journo.....ntion-7269
*sits waiting for the a maelstrom of outraged responses to start*
17 Jul 09
4:16 pm
Trust those upstart Kiwis…but strength to their arm.
Like many Mumbrella followers, I well remember the mid 90s when old media was contorting itself trying to work out how to monetise its output with the new technology at its disposal. The big publishers destroyed millions chasing various rainbows before deciding to turn iconic mastheads such as The SMH, The Oz and The Bulletin into local e-rags by giving their pearls away online in the hope that ads would keep the business model afloat. Lunacy.
When you make something free you cripple its value – in any language, in any business, at anytime, anywhere. As Brad Howarth says, if people believe something is worth paying for, they’ll pay.
One group of publishers have known this all along. The leaders then – and now – were (are) the pornographers. They knew they had something of worth that people wanted. The technology just made it easier to deliver. Happy to give away only little tastes of their gems, the porn kings and queens made a fortune by charging for their output – online and off. Now they own homes in the south of France.
17 Jul 09
11:03 pm
As the good folk of Business Spectator seem to be finding out.
18 Jul 09
5:40 pm
Most of you are defining blogs too narrowly. Not all blogs feed off existing media. I write a hyperlocal blog about Fitzroy in Melbourne. My qualification? I live in Fitzroy and have a good eye for detail, a digital camera and the ability to publish two stories a day.
As a blogger I rely on legacy media for nothing. I comment on their stories sometimes and sometimes they steal my content, and I embarrass them by winning Australian Press Council complaints against them and publishing stories about how they breach the copyrights of bloggers.
The food and art bloggers in Melbourne cover these areas in far greater depth, breadth and vitality than commercial media does. We give content away partially because we enjoy creating it and partially because we enjoy showing how inadequate commercial media is.
22 Jul 09
11:35 am
Blogs are like the Dems. They’re useful in keeping the bastards honest, but give ‘em the whole box and dice to run and they’ll not be able to pull it off.