Bad ad concepts from yore brought back to life
I found this advert for the new Dodge Viper in the latest edition of Wired magazine. Need I say more?
Update: The French auto blog, fittingly namned Le Blog Auto, discusses the ad further. Mon Dieu!
Update: The French auto blog, fittingly namned Le Blog Auto, discusses the ad further. Mon Dieu!
The Swedish Union of Journalists blogs from Ukraine
The Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) today started a blog about a project in Ukraine. SJF is helping journalists to establish and manage unions in Ukraine. The first post was published just an hour and a half ago.
My Technorati cosmos doubled in a day
A few days ago Technorati suddenly said that the number of links to my blog are about 354, up from about 177 in no-time. Naturally I began to wonder why this figure is double the amount from the day before? It seems that Technorati has been doing some changes to the way they count incoming links and now displays links from blogs over the last six months. I'm unsure if this is the reason though.
Technorati tag: Technorati.
Technorati tag: Technorati.
Spray launches blog service
I noticed today that Spray just launched a beta version of a new and free blog service. By the looks of it, it seems to be working, although there still are some major bugs, like when you click on a post on Spray's site, it shows the wrong blog URL.
CEO turns sailing blogger
Arne Mårtensson steps down as Group CEO of Handelsbanken, one of Sweden's largest banks, to go sailing round the world for three years. He also declines renominations to the boards of Handelsbanken (where he is chairman), Ericsson (vice chairman), Sandvik, Skanska, Industrivärden, Holmen and Vin&Sprit. During his trip he will be writing a blog on http://www.yaghanvoyages.blogspot.com/.
H&M flip-flops on Moss
A new chapter seems to be written each day in H&M's relation to Kate Moss. Today, H&M's CEO Rolf Eriksen tells Dagens Industri's online edition that they will not rule out the possibility to use Moss in future campaigns.
"You never know what might happen if she changes attitude. The important thing is that she is not a part of this campaign." [The launch of H&M's Stella McCartney collection]
"Kate Moss is one of the most talented models in the world and we hope that she will get help with her problems."
Back to a softer approach again? What about the potential law suit?
"You never know what might happen if she changes attitude. The important thing is that she is not a part of this campaign." [The launch of H&M's Stella McCartney collection]
"Kate Moss is one of the most talented models in the world and we hope that she will get help with her problems."
Back to a softer approach again? What about the potential law suit?
Moss - the perfect poker face
Kate Moss has been offered £5m to front the online poker site nine.com, according to Brand Republic (reg. required). The gambling site has offered Moss a five-year contract to be the face of its new campaign. The contract would come with restrictions, including time in rehab and monitoring to prove she is not taking drugs. Moss was also asked to participate in a nine.com-sponsored anti-drugs campaign aimed at students.
Jack Abrams, a nine.com spokesman, said: "We did a quick focus group with some customers to see if they would be offended in any way and the response was an overwhelming, 'No -- please get Kate Moss as your spokesperson'."
Sure, poker players would vote for Spongebob Squarepants as spokesperson, as long as it would lure more players into the game.
Jack Abrams, a nine.com spokesman, said: "We did a quick focus group with some customers to see if they would be offended in any way and the response was an overwhelming, 'No -- please get Kate Moss as your spokesperson'."
Sure, poker players would vote for Spongebob Squarepants as spokesperson, as long as it would lure more players into the game.
Why suing Kate Moss is a really bad idea
I read in Expressen that H&M are investigating the possibilities to sue super model Kate Moss for damages. H&M are looking at recovering some costs that came as a result of the recent cocaine scandal. From a PR perspective this seems like a very very bad idea. Here's why:1. She's sorry. She made a stupid mistake and admitted it. She apologized to everyone that might have suffered from her behaviour. Going after someone who is truthfully apologetic does not give your company a sympathetic image, even if you technically are entitled to do it.
2. You forgave her. H&M's initial reaction to the story was to give Moss a second chance. By suing her, H&M make a 180 degree turn and does not come out as a company with a clear strategy on this matter.
3. Big vs small #1. H&M is a huge company, partially owned by one of Sweden's richest men. It has all the resources one can wish for, whilst Moss is an individual, a small woman, albeit wealthy and big enough to snort cocaine. Nevertheless, readers are more likely to side with David than Goliath.
4. Big vs small #2. Does it not look somewhat greedy for a company that last year made a net profit of SEK 7.2 billion to sue an individual for damages? Um, yes it does.
5. Addiction is a disease, even if self inflicted. Moss is obviously sick. She needs help, not law suits. Sure, she caused the situation herself, but then what? Do H&M want to destroy her?
6. Enough already. The more H&M talk about the incident, the longer it will continue and they run the risk of being associated with a drug addict. Just drop it and focus on your new campaign. Use the massive attention to do something positive.
7. The story broke on 15 Sept. First they forgave her, then H&M didn't communicate that they are dropping Moss until 20 Sept. I can understand that H&M feel they are in a business relation with Moss and that she broke the contract and cost H&M some serious money. But had the company had a clear strategy from the beginning it might even have gained credibility and brand recognition from the story. Now, it is more likely that the brand will suffer from whimsical public relations than from the cocaine scandal itself. (H&M now claim they decided to drop Moss on 17 Sept. Which is worst, having trouble deciding or not being able to communicate what they have decided?)
Jessica Simpson to replace Kate Moss
Marketing weekly Resumé claims that pop princess and Newlyweds star Jessica Simpson will replace Kate Moss in the advertising campaign for Swedish clothier H&M's new Stella McCartney collection.
H&M of course declined to comment on the speculations. Should this be true it is cause for a celebration with a plate of buffalo wings, unless you like Simpson "don't eat buffalo".
H&M of course declined to comment on the speculations. Should this be true it is cause for a celebration with a plate of buffalo wings, unless you like Simpson "don't eat buffalo".
Swedish daily buys fashion blog
The first acquisition of a blog in Sweden will take place in the coming weeks according to an article in marketing weekly Resumé. A company in the Bonnier corporation is currently negotiating to purchase the fashion blog Manolo.se and sources say that it is Sydsvenskan, one of the larger dailies in Sweden that will make the investment.
- We are negotiating. The deal is in the final stages, we have come far enough to conclude that it will happen, says Tomas de Souza, one of the three founders, to Internetworld.
The information that was leaked in the comments at Erik's blog three days ago seems to be correct.
Manolo.se had 35,000 visitors in August.
- We are negotiating. The deal is in the final stages, we have come far enough to conclude that it will happen, says Tomas de Souza, one of the three founders, to Internetworld.
The information that was leaked in the comments at Erik's blog three days ago seems to be correct.
Manolo.se had 35,000 visitors in August.
String of bad luck for Kate Moss
Not only did H&M finally dump Cocaine-Kate (what took them so long?). Now Burberry and Chanel also call it quits. Don't worry Kate, you're just having a bad trip. Change the music, wash your face with cold water and take a stroll. You'll find yourself back on track in no-time. Not.
PR knowledge for free - go and grab it
There is some truly great stuff being produced over at the Global PR Blog Week 2.0 event blog. Check out for example Tom Murphy's article about pragmatic PR and Dee Rambeau & Chris Bechtel's great piece about online media relations.
I got a letter
Here's an odd version of personal branding. "Peter K - former journalist" wants me to buy his books. Apparently you can build a career on having once been a journalist. File under "has-been positioning".
A walk on thin ice
Making ice cream seems to be a walk on very thin ice these days. Not long ago we had the Nogger Black racist debate in Sweden and now an ice cream cone at Burger King has upset some Muslims because it resembles an Arabic inscription.Via Adrants.
Swedish tv goes digital
Sweden today started to convert to digital television in the terrestrial network by turning off the analogue signals on the island of Gotland. Information is provided in eight languages. As expected (change=bad), everybody's against it.
Progress in Swedish media's blog approach
Swedish daily Norrbottens-Kuriren is doing something right. Today it launched a citizen journalism initiative called "Blog of the week". A different blogger is invited to blog on the paper's web site each week and the first blogger out is Lisen Ellard, dancer and radio journalist (how typical...).
Most previous blogging efforts from Swedish media so far has only been to add a blog to the arsenal of the paper's regular staff of opinion makers. Or far worse, they add some sort of lame diary page without any basic blog functions (read permalinks, RSS, etc) and call it a blog. The most recent example is Dagens Nyheter's editor in chief Jan Wifstrand's "blog" about handball (!). I don't want to be a blog fundamentalist, but dear Mr. Wifstrand, I hate to break this to you, but you don't have a blog. Similarly, correspondent Thomas Hall at DN "blogs" in the same non-blog format from Germany.
But back to the positive initiative at Norrbottens-Kuriren, which makes it to #4 on the Outing-scale, i.e. Steve Outing's 11 layers of citizen journalism. It is just one of a number of examples that show us that Swedish media are starting to grasp that citizen journalism can be more than just adding comments to online articles. For example:
- Aftonbladet is experimenting with blogs and apart from launching a series of own blogs, also interviewed a large number of bloggers during the summer, pointing to their blogs.
- SR (Swedish Radio) recently launched Bloggkrönikan, a blog review that comments on things written in the blogosphere, not by professional opinion makers but independent thinkers which make up the essence of the blogosphere.
Hopefully we will see even more advanced experiments with citizen journalism in the coming 12 months up to the next Swedish election.
Most previous blogging efforts from Swedish media so far has only been to add a blog to the arsenal of the paper's regular staff of opinion makers. Or far worse, they add some sort of lame diary page without any basic blog functions (read permalinks, RSS, etc) and call it a blog. The most recent example is Dagens Nyheter's editor in chief Jan Wifstrand's "blog" about handball (!). I don't want to be a blog fundamentalist, but dear Mr. Wifstrand, I hate to break this to you, but you don't have a blog. Similarly, correspondent Thomas Hall at DN "blogs" in the same non-blog format from Germany.
But back to the positive initiative at Norrbottens-Kuriren, which makes it to #4 on the Outing-scale, i.e. Steve Outing's 11 layers of citizen journalism. It is just one of a number of examples that show us that Swedish media are starting to grasp that citizen journalism can be more than just adding comments to online articles. For example:
- Aftonbladet is experimenting with blogs and apart from launching a series of own blogs, also interviewed a large number of bloggers during the summer, pointing to their blogs.
- SR (Swedish Radio) recently launched Bloggkrönikan, a blog review that comments on things written in the blogosphere, not by professional opinion makers but independent thinkers which make up the essence of the blogosphere.
Hopefully we will see even more advanced experiments with citizen journalism in the coming 12 months up to the next Swedish election.
Take off for Global PR Blog Week 2.0
Global PR Blog Week 2.0 started today and the fact that I declined to participate this year is absolutely not a reason not to tune in (I just couldn't find the time to write a longer piece this year). This is the event where the creme of the crop of PR bloggers share their knowledge and expertise about the intersection of public relations and new technology like blogs and wikis. A wide range of topics will be covered during the five day event. Tune in, read, learn and comment.
4-4-2
The UK football magazine FourFourTwo will launch a Norwegian edition called FireFireTo, reports Propaganda. Next country in line will probably be Sweden "if they qualify to the World Cup". Of course we will...
By the way, FireFireTo, wouldn't that be a great name for an NRA magazine?
By the way, FireFireTo, wouldn't that be a great name for an NRA magazine?
Google launches blog search
Google has just launched a blog search tool and it seems very promising. After a few quick tries I found several interesting blogs I will start subscribing to. Like for example Swedish communications consultant Jan Sandred's blog Innovation Journalism (in English).
Update: Ego-searching seems to be the spinal reaction to a new tool like Blogsearch. Chadie and Olav searched for their own blogs, with different levels of success. And yes, I did it too.
Update: Ego-searching seems to be the spinal reaction to a new tool like Blogsearch. Chadie and Olav searched for their own blogs, with different levels of success. And yes, I did it too.
DN: Gov. Blanco turned down help from Bush - or did she?
Journalist Roland Poirier Martinsson has received a "sum of money" to do a report about Swedish media and its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure he will do an excellent job, and not let his previous conclusions disturb the report. Nevertheless, I would very much like Martinsson to include these two recent articles because I reacted strongly to the way especially Dagens Nyheter portrayed a certain "fact" about Gov. Blanco.
First PM Nilsson of Expressen who writes that Blanco refused help from the White House because the state had everything under control:
"Och vi vet också att Louisianas guvernör Kathleen Blanco fem dagar efter Katrina avvisade hjälp från Vita huset eftersom hon ansåg att delstaten "hade allt under kontroll" (New York Times 8/9). Vi vet också att USA:s delstater svartsjukt bevakar sin suveränitet och att federationen USA är en ganska tunn stat inombords. Washington kan inte klampa in med trupp och nödhjälp om inte delstaten kräver det, och för en president är denna avvägning viktigare än hudfärgen på de drabbade."
Hans Bergström of Dagens Nyheter tags along in the same lines, noting that Blanco refused to let federal organizations lead the evacuation. The headline of the article is "Guvernören sa nej när Bush ville hjälpa", translated "The governor said no, when Bush wanted to help":
"Så snart omfånget av katastrofen började stå klart, vände sig Bushadministrationen till delstaten Louisianas demokratiske guvernör Kathleen Blanco och bad henne begära att den federala nivån tog över ansvaret för evakueringen (enligt Associated press och New York Times). Hon vägrade, troligen utifrån traditionell benägenhet i södern, att värja sig mot maktövertagande från Washington."
I suspect they both refer to this article from NY Times (I find it fascinating that they both make a reference to other media, for credibility, but do not provide a link so that we could check their sources for ourselves). What this article points to is that she didn't reject federal help per se, but one specific proposal regarding how to organize the disaster relief efforts.
"After huddling with her advisers late into the night last Friday and again Saturday morning, she rejected a White House proposal to consolidate the National Guard and active duty troops in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone under a single commander appointed by the Bush administration."
"If I had seen a greater purpose, if I had felt it would make an immediate difference, it would have been a no-brainer, but by Friday, we had everything in control," she said in an interview in a trailer behind the state's emergency operations center.
NY Times continues:
"She said the proposal to unify the troops under federal command amounted to bureaucratic reshuffling, when what she really needed was more resources to save lives."
Her rejection of the proposal meant that: "...she is in control of the National Guard soldiers in Louisiana, while the president has authority over the active duty troops."
To quote NY Times, whether her decision was best for her state remains to be seen. At least I think that PM Nilsson's and Hans Bergström's articles give a completely different impression of Blanco's requests for and acceptance of federal help, especially considering, according to her own claims "she insisted that she asked for help early on in several conversations with President Bush."
Further reading. Talking Points Memo: "...the White House has been hitting her for weeks now claiming that in various ways she dropped the ball. And that seems quite simply to be false."
The Congressional Research Service reviewed the record to see whether Gov. Blanco took the necessary steps in a timely fashion to secure federal assistance in the face of hurricane Katrina. And she did. Full report.
"...she did take the necessary steps to request emergency and major disaster declarations for the State of Lousiana in anticipation of the Hurricane Katrina."
More: Jay Rosen also has some views (and raises some good questions) on the story, among other things how the Washington Post got spun by nameless sources who falsely put the blame on Blanco:
"Both Josh Marshall and Arianna Huffington pointed away from backbone recovery to ask how the Washington Post allowed itself to be used by a nameless Bush official peddling the “fact” that as of Sep. 3rd, Lousiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency. (Newsweek also had it.) This turned out to be wrong. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26."
First PM Nilsson of Expressen who writes that Blanco refused help from the White House because the state had everything under control:
"Och vi vet också att Louisianas guvernör Kathleen Blanco fem dagar efter Katrina avvisade hjälp från Vita huset eftersom hon ansåg att delstaten "hade allt under kontroll" (New York Times 8/9). Vi vet också att USA:s delstater svartsjukt bevakar sin suveränitet och att federationen USA är en ganska tunn stat inombords. Washington kan inte klampa in med trupp och nödhjälp om inte delstaten kräver det, och för en president är denna avvägning viktigare än hudfärgen på de drabbade."
Hans Bergström of Dagens Nyheter tags along in the same lines, noting that Blanco refused to let federal organizations lead the evacuation. The headline of the article is "Guvernören sa nej när Bush ville hjälpa", translated "The governor said no, when Bush wanted to help":
"Så snart omfånget av katastrofen började stå klart, vände sig Bushadministrationen till delstaten Louisianas demokratiske guvernör Kathleen Blanco och bad henne begära att den federala nivån tog över ansvaret för evakueringen (enligt Associated press och New York Times). Hon vägrade, troligen utifrån traditionell benägenhet i södern, att värja sig mot maktövertagande från Washington."
I suspect they both refer to this article from NY Times (I find it fascinating that they both make a reference to other media, for credibility, but do not provide a link so that we could check their sources for ourselves). What this article points to is that she didn't reject federal help per se, but one specific proposal regarding how to organize the disaster relief efforts.
"After huddling with her advisers late into the night last Friday and again Saturday morning, she rejected a White House proposal to consolidate the National Guard and active duty troops in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone under a single commander appointed by the Bush administration."
"If I had seen a greater purpose, if I had felt it would make an immediate difference, it would have been a no-brainer, but by Friday, we had everything in control," she said in an interview in a trailer behind the state's emergency operations center.
NY Times continues:
"She said the proposal to unify the troops under federal command amounted to bureaucratic reshuffling, when what she really needed was more resources to save lives."
Her rejection of the proposal meant that: "...she is in control of the National Guard soldiers in Louisiana, while the president has authority over the active duty troops."
To quote NY Times, whether her decision was best for her state remains to be seen. At least I think that PM Nilsson's and Hans Bergström's articles give a completely different impression of Blanco's requests for and acceptance of federal help, especially considering, according to her own claims "she insisted that she asked for help early on in several conversations with President Bush."
Further reading. Talking Points Memo: "...the White House has been hitting her for weeks now claiming that in various ways she dropped the ball. And that seems quite simply to be false."
The Congressional Research Service reviewed the record to see whether Gov. Blanco took the necessary steps in a timely fashion to secure federal assistance in the face of hurricane Katrina. And she did. Full report.
"...she did take the necessary steps to request emergency and major disaster declarations for the State of Lousiana in anticipation of the Hurricane Katrina."
More: Jay Rosen also has some views (and raises some good questions) on the story, among other things how the Washington Post got spun by nameless sources who falsely put the blame on Blanco:
"Both Josh Marshall and Arianna Huffington pointed away from backbone recovery to ask how the Washington Post allowed itself to be used by a nameless Bush official peddling the “fact” that as of Sep. 3rd, Lousiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency. (Newsweek also had it.) This turned out to be wrong. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26."
FT publishes dummy page
Financial Times, one of the world's most respected papers, yesterday (12 Sept) published an entire page full of dummy texts like "Headline here that reflects a story about Chirac, de Villepin and that man Sarkozy" and "Chirac caption here: you can make it say as much or as little as you wantdfjdfd". That man Sarkozy...!
The page repeats this nonsense text over and over again: "Lorum ibsum decorum upyabum and hows your father. This is dummy copy and has been created with the sole purpose of training users in the joys of producing via methode."
Pretty hilarious. Hat tip to Vassa eggen.
The page repeats this nonsense text over and over again: "Lorum ibsum decorum upyabum and hows your father. This is dummy copy and has been created with the sole purpose of training users in the joys of producing via methode."
Pretty hilarious. Hat tip to Vassa eggen.
ROKR.se is now taken
Yesterday I posted that the domain rokr.se was still available. Today it is gone, registered by a Lukas Marberger.
Maintenance schmaintenance
If you run a hotel, you don't lock the doors because of temporary maintenance without telling your guests. The same should apply for a web hotel, but apparently Spray doesn't agree. I couldn't post to my blog this morning and as it seems my web host Spray is currently doing some maintenance to the FTP server, which is currently unavailable.
And no, putting a smiley after the message doesn't help...
Tyvärr, FTP-servern är tillfälligt nere för underhåll... Försök vänligen lite senare :-)
But to be honest, I don't know what is causing my problems with posting today, but I suspect that Spray has something to do with it. My error messages on Blogger points to wrong ftp login.
And no, putting a smiley after the message doesn't help...
Tyvärr, FTP-servern är tillfälligt nere för underhåll... Försök vänligen lite senare :-)
But to be honest, I don't know what is causing my problems with posting today, but I suspect that Spray has something to do with it. My error messages on Blogger points to wrong ftp login.
Sweden's Yogi Berra
Dagens Nyheter today publishes two interviews (link to one out of two) with Niclas Rislund and Oisín Cantwell, news reporters at Swedish tabloids Expressen and Aftonbladet. They write about criminal cases or disasters like the tsunami in Asia, and are sometimes accused of exploiting people in grief or using unethical journalistic methods. Rislund is currently facing charges for impersonating a police officer in order to receive information to a story.
The articles are full of great quotes. Like this one from Rislund, regarding if it is right to interview witnesses to a crime or relatives to a victim of an accident.
"Det är ju inget straff att synas i Expressen."
(It is not a punishment to be seen in Expressen)
Or this one from Cantwell, who is a candidate for the title "Sweden's Yogi Berra".
"Jag vet att jag har sagt det jag påstås ha sagt."
(I know that I have said what they say I've said)
It is also fascinating that none of them wants to appear with a photo in the article, because after reading the manuscript they don't feel that the articles represent them correctly. Thus, let me give two advice to anyone who is ever approached by these two journalists:
1. Always demand to see the quotes before the article is printed.
2. Never agree to appear with a photo unless you feel the article represents you correctly, even if you have said the things they say you've said.
PS. You want photos? Here are some tiny ones: Rislund and Cantwell.
The articles are full of great quotes. Like this one from Rislund, regarding if it is right to interview witnesses to a crime or relatives to a victim of an accident.
"Det är ju inget straff att synas i Expressen."
(It is not a punishment to be seen in Expressen)
Or this one from Cantwell, who is a candidate for the title "Sweden's Yogi Berra".
"Jag vet att jag har sagt det jag påstås ha sagt."
(I know that I have said what they say I've said)
It is also fascinating that none of them wants to appear with a photo in the article, because after reading the manuscript they don't feel that the articles represent them correctly. Thus, let me give two advice to anyone who is ever approached by these two journalists:
1. Always demand to see the quotes before the article is printed.
2. Never agree to appear with a photo unless you feel the article represents you correctly, even if you have said the things they say you've said.
PS. You want photos? Here are some tiny ones: Rislund and Cantwell.
ROKR.se available
The domain rokr.com is for sale. Ryan Whitaker happened to own it when Apple decided to name its new mobile phone ROKR. Whether he has struck gold or not remains to be seen. At least Apple owns ipod.com so Jobs et al might have an interest to bag this domain too. It is also interesting to see that the Swedish domain rokr.se is still available (at 14.06 today). How long before it's gone?
Technorati tag: ROKR.
Technorati tag: ROKR.
Madonna's fee a real shockr
Rumours have it that Motorola is paying Madonna $8 million to promote the new Moto/Apple ROKR phone. For 10 hours of work, that's 6 million SEK per hour. Pretty darn good. The average Swede has to work 28 years to earn what the material girl made in one hour.
[Via Adrants.] Technorati tag: ROKR.
[Via Adrants.] Technorati tag: ROKR.
Next: Google sushi?
Laura Ries has never been a fan of brand extensions. Read her views on what Google's business strategy does to the Google brand.
"No brand can stand for everything and dominate every market. Today, Google is a great search engine. Tomorrow, Google might be octopus sushi for another new brand."
"No brand can stand for everything and dominate every market. Today, Google is a great search engine. Tomorrow, Google might be octopus sushi for another new brand."
Expressen shuts down blogs
Swedish tabloid Expressen is closing down several of its blogs, reports Dagens Media. The political blog penned by Niklas Svensson and Cecilia Garme was shut down on Wednesday and Per Svensson decided to quit blogging because of lack of time. Expressen's editor in chief Otto Sjöberg says that the paper has revised its blogging policy so that news reporters can't blog.
- We want news reporters to focus on working with news, Sjöberg tells Dagens Media.
PM Nilsson hasn't blogged since the end of July (due to a longer vacation). And since Ebba von Sydow will quit to take on a the role as editor in chief of Vecko-Revyn, her blog will not continue to be under the wings of Expressen.
Update: Niklas Svensson has already launched a new private blog about politics (looks a lot more like private stuff and gossip to me, but that may of course change). Via Nya Ordlekar. More at Dagens Media.
Footnote: The Swedish blogosphere invented the epithet "Expressen blogger" this summer and it represents a journalist that starts a blog to keep ut with things, but hasn't grasped what it's all about.
- We want news reporters to focus on working with news, Sjöberg tells Dagens Media.
PM Nilsson hasn't blogged since the end of July (due to a longer vacation). And since Ebba von Sydow will quit to take on a the role as editor in chief of Vecko-Revyn, her blog will not continue to be under the wings of Expressen.
Update: Niklas Svensson has already launched a new private blog about politics (looks a lot more like private stuff and gossip to me, but that may of course change). Via Nya Ordlekar. More at Dagens Media.
Footnote: The Swedish blogosphere invented the epithet "Expressen blogger" this summer and it represents a journalist that starts a blog to keep ut with things, but hasn't grasped what it's all about.
Don't blame the press
Norwegian defender André Bergdølmo blaims the press for Norway's defeat against Scotland in Wednesday's World Cup qualifiers.
- Skottene var gode. De visste hvordan vi kom til å spille, mye takket være norsk presse. Åge (Hareide) har prøvd å holde lagoppstillingen hemmelig. Likevel får dere rede på det gjennom ulike kanaler. Og når dere trykker det, føler jeg at dere dolker landslaget i ryggen.
- Det er illojalt, sier Bergdølmo.
The national coach wanted to keep the line-up secret until the very last moment, but the Norwegian press found out and printed it. Bergdølmo means that the Scots took advantage of the information and that it was illoyal of media to reveal what they knew would damage the home team. But it is not the duty of media to censor information because it would harm the national football team.
A common term in Swedish when describing media policies regarding this issue is that journalists should be "konsekvensneutrala" which means media must be neutral to the consequenses of an article. If a story is relevant from a news perspective, the fact that one party might suffer is not reason enough to stop the article. Like in this news policy from Swedish Radio "Ekot".
Vår grundregel är att nyhetsförmedlingen är konsekvensneutral. Att en part kan vinna eller förlora på vår publicering är inget skäl för oss att avstå. Vi sänder det som är viktigt enligt relevans- och saklighetskraven. Det är inte nyhetsförmedlarens sak att ta hänsyn till vem som gynnas eller missgynnas av en viss nyhet.
Support for the home team is great, but it's by no means mandatory. Or maybe Bergdølmo expected the same support as the Sun gave the English team before the historic 5-1 win against Germany. The paper hired a bus with a band that went to the German team's hotel in the middle of the night and woke them up.
PS. Never forget - what Carew does with a football, Zlatan can do with an orange.
- Skottene var gode. De visste hvordan vi kom til å spille, mye takket være norsk presse. Åge (Hareide) har prøvd å holde lagoppstillingen hemmelig. Likevel får dere rede på det gjennom ulike kanaler. Og når dere trykker det, føler jeg at dere dolker landslaget i ryggen.
- Det er illojalt, sier Bergdølmo.
The national coach wanted to keep the line-up secret until the very last moment, but the Norwegian press found out and printed it. Bergdølmo means that the Scots took advantage of the information and that it was illoyal of media to reveal what they knew would damage the home team. But it is not the duty of media to censor information because it would harm the national football team.
A common term in Swedish when describing media policies regarding this issue is that journalists should be "konsekvensneutrala" which means media must be neutral to the consequenses of an article. If a story is relevant from a news perspective, the fact that one party might suffer is not reason enough to stop the article. Like in this news policy from Swedish Radio "Ekot".
Vår grundregel är att nyhetsförmedlingen är konsekvensneutral. Att en part kan vinna eller förlora på vår publicering är inget skäl för oss att avstå. Vi sänder det som är viktigt enligt relevans- och saklighetskraven. Det är inte nyhetsförmedlarens sak att ta hänsyn till vem som gynnas eller missgynnas av en viss nyhet.
Support for the home team is great, but it's by no means mandatory. Or maybe Bergdølmo expected the same support as the Sun gave the English team before the historic 5-1 win against Germany. The paper hired a bus with a band that went to the German team's hotel in the middle of the night and woke them up.
PS. Never forget - what Carew does with a football, Zlatan can do with an orange.
iPod - therefore I have no life?
Geez, when will the hype end?
Top searches on Technorati this hour:
1. “Ipod Nano”
2. Katrina
3. Apple
4. “Impeach Bush”
5. Ipod
6. “Barbara Bush”
7. “Itunes 5”
8. Itunes
9. “Kanye West”
10. Rokr
If you can read Swedish and are able to pick up a copy of Nöjesguiden, please check out the anti-iPod column in the beginning of the paper. It's brilliant. Then rant or rave, depending on your preferences for little expensive white gadgets.
Top searches on Technorati this hour:
1. “Ipod Nano”
2. Katrina
3. Apple
4. “Impeach Bush”
5. Ipod
6. “Barbara Bush”
7. “Itunes 5”
8. Itunes
9. “Kanye West”
10. Rokr
If you can read Swedish and are able to pick up a copy of Nöjesguiden, please check out the anti-iPod column in the beginning of the paper. It's brilliant. Then rant or rave, depending on your preferences for little expensive white gadgets.
Gooh - Get Out Of Here
What on earth can drive a company to call itself Gooh? A new fast food chain called Gooh opened up its first store in Stockholm last week, promising great tasting food to go. Ahh, now I get it. To go. Gooh... Pretty smart, but in Branding 101 they would probably teach you to check your new brand for possible negative associations, the first would of course be "goo" - meaning "sludge: any thick messy substance". The second being the acronym GOOH, which is an abbreviation for Get Out Of Here. But maybe that was the intention all along?
Swedish Radio starts blog review
SR (Swedish Radio) will start a weekly show reviewing the blogosphere. The first one will be broadcasted on Saturday, 10 Sept in Lunchekot at 12.30. Podcast, please?
Link via Medielandskapet and Researcher.
Link via Medielandskapet and Researcher.
Unfortunate web design
Sweden's football team faces Hungary tonight in an important World Cup qualifier. Hungary's national coach Lothar Matthäus is not a shy man, and why should he be, considering his outstanding career? His advanced website includes a wide range of information for his fans, including a gallery of current and previous wives/girlfriends. Does the current Mrs. approve, one wonders. The layout of the gallery is also unfortunate, almost implying there's room for one more...
Technorati (featuring Magnus)
Congratulations to Magnus Attefall who's blog today is one of five featured blogs on Technorati's Blog Finder. I wonder what all those visitors will think when they are sent to a blog in Swedish ;-)
Sign of the times #3
From an ad in Svenska Dagbladet - parking space for sale, apartment included. Is it perhaps a sign of the coming launch of road tolls in Stockholm city?
Technorati launches blog directory
Blog Finder is a new feature from Technorati (still in beta) that lists blogs in different categories, like PR and journalism.
[Via Micropersuasion.]
[Via Micropersuasion.]
Washington Post's smart use of Technorati
Oh, this is really neat. I only wish I had written something smarter in my previous post. Washington Post publishes links to "what bloggers say" about their online articles. It's a very clever way of helping readers get more views on a certain topic.
Update: I didn't realize how new this initiative was. Apparently a press release about the co-operation between Washington Post and Technorati was issued just the day before my post.
"Washingtonpost.com today announced that it has partnered with blog search company Technorati to offer its readers the opportunity to view comments and opinions about washingtonpost.com articles and editorials from around the blogosphere. The service will search millions of blogs for postings and feature links to the most blogged about articles and the liveliest web discussions on washingtonpost.com content."
Update: I didn't realize how new this initiative was. Apparently a press release about the co-operation between Washington Post and Technorati was issued just the day before my post.
"Washingtonpost.com today announced that it has partnered with blog search company Technorati to offer its readers the opportunity to view comments and opinions about washingtonpost.com articles and editorials from around the blogosphere. The service will search millions of blogs for postings and feature links to the most blogged about articles and the liveliest web discussions on washingtonpost.com content."
Hurricane forces people online in search of information
Survivors of the hurricane Katrina turn to blogs and online message boards in pleas for help, writes USA Today. Washington Post writes about how local newspapers turn to online editions as printing and distributing the "dead-tree edition" becomes impossible.
Update: Flickr photos.
Technorati tags: hurricane, Katrina.
Update: Flickr photos.
Technorati tags: hurricane, Katrina.
Aftonbladet - where are your RSS feeds?
Swedish media have had RSS feeds for quite some time now and the adoption rate seems to be stable. The number of subscribers in Bloglines is growing at a steady rate and the most popular feeds now have more subscribers than the Swedish A-list bloggers do. RSS is apparently a form of consuming news from big media that appeals to a growing part of the population, although the numbers are still very small in comparison to newspapers' normal circulation.
What amazes me is that Aftonbladet still doesn't come with an RSS feed (or does it?) apart from a hacked feed created via MyRSS: http://myrss.com/f/a/f/aftonbladetSe32e8bf1.rss91. This little hack has 29 subscribers at Bloglines. Imagine how many subscribers an official feed would have, considering that Aftonbladet.se is the leading news web page in Sweden. Of course, one could argue that there is no economy in RSS (yet) or that the numbers are still insignificant. Sure, but why be the last to jump on the waggon? RSS will grow, I am sure of that.
It's been a while since I checked last time, but Dagens Nyheter is still the most popular feed, in fact DN has 3 of the top 10 feeds which are (subscribers in Bloglines):
1. Dagens Nyheter (214)
2. Dagens Nyheter Senaste Nytt (198)
3. Ny Teknik (185)
4. Computer Sweden (161)
5. Internetworld (160)
6. SR Ekot (151)
7. IDG.se (124)
8. Expressen Nyheter (101)
9. Dagens Nyheter Ekonomi (88)
10. Expressen (66)
Footnote 1: I'm not counting the feeds from media blogs, only "regular news" feeds. I'm aware that Aftonbladet's blogs have RSS feeds, but this is a non-blog post.
Footnote 2: I have seen estimates that Bloglines have somewhere between 20-35 per cent of the market. If that is true, multiply the numbers above accordingly and you get an estimate of the total number of subscribers.
What amazes me is that Aftonbladet still doesn't come with an RSS feed (or does it?) apart from a hacked feed created via MyRSS: http://myrss.com/f/a/f/aftonbladetSe32e8bf1.rss91. This little hack has 29 subscribers at Bloglines. Imagine how many subscribers an official feed would have, considering that Aftonbladet.se is the leading news web page in Sweden. Of course, one could argue that there is no economy in RSS (yet) or that the numbers are still insignificant. Sure, but why be the last to jump on the waggon? RSS will grow, I am sure of that.
It's been a while since I checked last time, but Dagens Nyheter is still the most popular feed, in fact DN has 3 of the top 10 feeds which are (subscribers in Bloglines):
1. Dagens Nyheter (214)
2. Dagens Nyheter Senaste Nytt (198)
3. Ny Teknik (185)
4. Computer Sweden (161)
5. Internetworld (160)
6. SR Ekot (151)
7. IDG.se (124)
8. Expressen Nyheter (101)
9. Dagens Nyheter Ekonomi (88)
10. Expressen (66)
Footnote 1: I'm not counting the feeds from media blogs, only "regular news" feeds. I'm aware that Aftonbladet's blogs have RSS feeds, but this is a non-blog post.
Footnote 2: I have seen estimates that Bloglines have somewhere between 20-35 per cent of the market. If that is true, multiply the numbers above accordingly and you get an estimate of the total number of subscribers.
