Twin threats peril preprint newspaper ads

Preprint advertising, a long-reliable source of business that represents a quarter of the remaining revenue for the struggling newspaper industry, is at greater risk than ever before, owing to a perfect storm of challenges. 

Representing some $5.2 billion a year in sales in 2011, advertising inserts from companies like Best Buy, Target, Kohl’s, Home Depot and Kmart represent the second largest

A British Craving: Fish & Chips

During a recent holiday to Cornwall I realised some of the British things that I miss. Things I don't generally think much about whilst I am in the Netherlands. But once I get to Britain there is a sudden Britishness that comes to the surface that makes me notice things I do actually miss because I am living in the land of the Dutch.

One of those is fish and chips. Some eating establishments in other countries offer fish and chips, even proclaiming it to be like "British" fish and chips. But real fish and chips can only really be found in Britain. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

So I made sure that we ate fish and chips whilst on holiday. Our first attempt at a fish and chip supper was scuppered at Rick Steins fish and chip shop in Padstow . The first issue (and a continuous one throughout our holiday) was that we had no change for the car park. But no worries because husband had a cunning plan - to go ask at Steins for some change. He was told, in a manner and tone that would melt the heart of the most expert of Dutch customer service worker, that they don't give change and if he wouldn't mind getting out of the way and getting to the back of the line. Which of course he wasn't planning to do without any change for the car park. And because he was quite affronted by the manner of the unhelpful worker he decided that we wouldn't be eating any fish and chips there.

So we got a takeaway from a fish and chip shop in Bodmin. My two eldest boys enjoyed their introduction to traditional British fare. It was satisfactory but it never really quashed my fish and chip craving.

Fowey
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

Fish & Chips
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

Our second fish and chip meal was in Fowey, a beautiful harbour town where we had a fabulous afternoon out on the beach followed by a stroll to the town. We stumbled upon a fish and chip shop which had table and chairs overlooking the harbour. We were sold and this experience knocked my craving for fish and chips out of the stadium for sure. I'm certain I can last a few more years now without any further massive fried food intake....

My "British" Olympics

The Olympic Park
(c) Sarah Rodrigues

I have to admit hearing about the London 2012 Olympics every day for so many years before the Olympics actually started just over two weeks ago was really getting on my nerves. What particularly bugged me was the negativity in the press in the lead up to the games. It seemed that from under every stone someone crawled out with their own opinion about how the games were being planned, budgeted for or  how the venues were being built. I even started writing a blog post way back when I had finally heard enough negativity. But then I decided the post was in itself negative albeit negative about the negativity. So it never went live.

And of course we most recently had a furore about tickets (or lack of). And then the games arrived. And then the tide turned. In spectacular fashion. For two weeks Brits were captivated. My Facebook was full of photos of friends and family that were lucky enough to get tickets for different events. And wow did they have a great time. Some saw the rowing, others saw women's football, some were lucky enough to see the men's football final, the women's pentathlon, hockey and basketball matches and the closing ceremony.

Whatever the sport, whatever the venue, it was clear that the atmosphere was amazing. The noise at the velodrome on TV was spectacular. The atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium could even be felt at home when Jessica Ennis brought home gold for Britain.

Jessica Ennis in the 100m hurdles
(c) Sarah Rodrigues

Every medal was celebrated. Every medal chance was seized by spectators and hopes were high across the board. And Team GB delivered. In style! Third in the medal table is no mean feat.

The Olympics following on from a holiday in Britain where I was surrounded with British flags and products lathered in the British flag has made me feel suddenly very British again! Don't get me wrong, I cheered on the Dutch athletes too (except for the little matter of a hockey victory by the men's team in the semi finals *cough*) but there was no confusion this time around about where my loyalties lay.

The Women's Heptathlon, including Dutch athlete Dafne Schippers
(c) Sarah Rodrigues

How did your country do in the 2012 Olympics? Were you cheering on your home or host country?

The Olympic Flame
(c) Sarah Rodrigues

Being British

A Truly British Sight
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

Following on from the theme in my last blog post about the very unBritish phenomena of showing how British the British...... I am on Pinterest - as many are - and have a board entitled "Being British" which is a collection of pictures that are, quite frankly, about British things.

This ranges from unusual things decorated with British flags and the British Queen to red telephone boxes and British pubs.

If British things float your boat then check out http://pinterest.com/thewritingwell/being-british/

A Wave of Patriotism: How Un-British!

When I moved to the Netherlands I was struck by the flag flying that goes on here. Many households have a flag pole attached to their house and at least once a year on Queen's Day a Dutch flag flaps proudly from the pole. Remembrance Day and Liberation Day are also marked by residents with flags outside their home.

I was struck by it because I didn't grow up with a lot of flag waving in Britain. There was some British flag flying when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. There was a wave of patriotism in 1977 when the Queen celebrated her silver jubilee. But other than that I cannot remember any real notable occasions when British flags could be seen in the streets. Until this year.

Having just come back from nearly three weeks in England I was amazed to see the scale of British flag flying going on: across pub fronts, in shop windows, across village greens and in house windows. A combination of the Queen's jubilee and Britain hosting the Olympics seems to have caused an outpouring of British sentiment and patriotism.

Here are some of the photos I captured of the 'British being un-British'.

Flying the British Flag on your Motor
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

Flying the British Flag at Home
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

FLying the British Flag at the Pub
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

Flying the British Flag at Land's End
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

A Cornish Off Licence Joins the Flag Flying
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

A Wool Shop Shows its Patriotism too
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

British Beer?
(c) Amanda van Mulligen

And not to be outdone, the family Ipad is also showing some British patriotism....

Big Data is a big deal for newspapers

Just when you thought you had a handle on digital publishing, here comes a paradigm shift that will be more counterintuitive and more disconcerting for newspapers than all the technological innovations that have come before. 

The disruptor du décade is called Big Data and it involves the collection, slicing and dicing of fragments of information that can be rapidly assembled to identify subtle

Investigative reporting lives! On YouTube!

“How are we going to get investigative reporting to work for the digital media?” a frustrated editor asked me in a recent conversation.   

“Our newspaper got a tremendous number of page views on the first day of an ambitious eight-part series and a decent number of hits on the second day,” he lamented.  “But traffic just died after that.” 

The answer, of course, is to leverage the power of the