Newspaper websites need a UX fix

As a young copy editor in the days when newspaper articles clattered off Linotypes, I sometimes went to the composing room to trim stories into the spaces allotted to them.



This involved “editing” 14 inches of hot type into a seven-inch hole by scanning a slug of slugs – reading upside down and backwards – to find a seemly place to end a story, usually by throwing away the balance of news

How TV could suffer the fate of newspapers

Second of two parts. The first part is here. 

In pivoting aggressively from print to local TV, Gannett Inc. and Tribune Co. are embracing a legacy media model that could be headed for the same audience fragmentation and economic dislocation as the newspaper businesses they are trying to escape. 


As detailed here yesterday, the two iconic publishing brands have announced parallel,

Gannett and Tribune pivot to TV: Is it wise?

First of two parts. The second part is here. 

Turning away from their roots in the newspaper business, Gannett Inc. and Tribune Co. are embarked on a pair of ambitious transactions that will transform them into two of the largest players in local TV broadcasting, but here’s the irony:

They are trading their prominence in one fading media vertical for dominance in another legacy business that

Tell Tale Signs of Britishness At Home

From recipes to CDs, it's surprising what
little things give you away as non-native
Photo:Vangelis Thomaidis

I wrote a guest post for Bringing Up Brits about how my three sons, who are predominantly Dutch, stand out from other Dutch boys because I am British. It got me thinking about how I stand out as British when Dutch people come to our house.

• Music: Many of the CDs I own wouldn't have made their way into the average Dutch home. I'm talking about the very British music that never really made a name over here. The artists I mention that make my husband screw his face up in confusion. 

• Food: My kitchen cupboards and fridge contain HP Brown sauce, Colman's Mustard, Paxo stuffing, Marmite, Branston pickle, Hayward's pickled onions, Ambrosia pudding rice and custard and Bisto. And the list probably goes on. These are not items you can get with ease in your local Dutch supermarket. They are expat shop specials, or brought lovingly over by visitors from England.

• Recipe books: I have weaning books and recipe books written by Gina Ford and Annabel Karmel on my kitchen shelf. Most Dutch people will look blankly at me if I mention those baby and child (food and nutrition) specialists. And my Jamie Oliver books are in English instead of in Dutch like the majority of Jamie Oliver recipe book owners here. In fact I have a fair few British recipe books for delights such as apple crumble, Yorkshire puddings and roast dinners.

• Books: The books I own are mainly in English. Me and Amazon.co.uk are best friends when it comes to getting English language books. That also includes books for my three boys to make sure their English keeps improving, and get to know very British nursery rhymes songs and classic stories.

• DVDs: When we moved in together my husband and I amalgamated our DVD collection and there were quite a few duplicates but Dutch DVDs have Dutch subtitles available and British DVDs don't. 

• Board Games: The British version of word games is always different to the Dutch version by way of the compilation of letters. For example the Dutch scrabble version contains 2 'J' tiles, whereas the British version contains 1. Playing Scrabble in Dutch with my British version and vice versa adds an extra challenge to the game which isn't wholly necessary. And of course British classics like 'Snakes n Ladders' is unknown in the Netherlands.

• Bags: Giving a guest a carrier bag from Tesco, Marks & Spencers or John Lewis to take items home in suddenly seems exotic just because it's not from Albert Heijn or C1000.

What have I missed out? Look around you in your home - what gives you away as an expat?

The Path To Now

“Try to perceive the sequence of interests, important friends, coincidences that have occurred in your life. Weren’t they leading you somewhere?” 

The Celestine Prophecy. 

I often believe now, unknown to my younger self, that the path I was on decades ago was one leading me to a life abroad. There were signs, hints and indications in my youth that I was preparing for a life beyond my birth country, that my later life would involve speaking a second language.

The allure of the sights and smells of a foreign land
Photo: Sergi Montaner

My first trip abroad was a family holiday to Tangiers in Morocco. The sound of an unfamiliar language spoken all around me, the rich vivid colours of the North African wedding attire sparkling in the hot evening sun, the enchantment of a music so different to Western pop, the smells of exotic food cooking in the streets all served to pique my curiosity about life beyond the borders of my home land.

At the end of my first year in secondary school I went on my first school trip abroad to La Rochelle. It began my love affair with France. I homed in on French and German for my GCSEs and continued French to A-Level. My love of the French language went beyond the allure of my Liverpudlian French teacher. A school trip to Berlin a year after the wall fell enticed me to be a part of something bigger. Foreign languages were a part of who I was.

When I started looking for a university course I centred my search on a French degree. I eventually picked a European Studies course in Bradford, which led to me studying in Toulouse for a year. I use the term studying lightly. I loved the smell and bustling of the local bakery every morning, loved watching the old man in a beret that shuffled to the local supermarket in his slippers, loved browsing at the snails in the freezer compartment as I did my grocery shop - trying to pluck up the courage to actually try them.

After graduation jobs with companies like Michelin kept me speaking French but as I later settled on a career in Human Resources the need to speak a second language soon dissipated.

Fascinated by the French language at an early age
Photo: Amanda van Mulligen

Did I lean towards foreign languages from an early age because I would eventually need to live my life in a language not my own? Did the family holidays abroad as a teenager to countries like Turkey, Bulgaria, America, Greece and Cyprus ignite a spark for a life abroad, a yearning to see other cultures, how others live?

As a teenager I’d envisioned a life abroad, in France, where I spoke the language and loved the culture. Somewhere along the way I got distracted and forgot where I had been headed. My linguistic mind stayed with me, unused but patiently waiting in the background whilst I strayed from the path I should have been on.

And then one day my brother met an American girl, online, in a chat room. I was clueless. I had no computer of my own and had no idea how you could ‘meet’ someone in a chat room. After what seemed like no time at all he announced he was moving to Long Island and was getting married. One family globetrotter had fled the nest. But my own path kept me firmly rooted in England.

I was finishing my Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resources and needed to write a dissertation. The absence of a computer at home made it hard to make any real progress so I asked Santa Claus for a PC. And lo and behold Santa obliged (disguised as my father) and I became the proud owner of a personal computer. It became an indispensable companion.

One evening, for a reason I can’t remember or can’t imagine when I think back, my brother’s once uttered words, “go try a chat room. It’s fun” popped into my head. I did a search and ended in a chat room talking to a Mexican. I was getting bored when a pop up appeared from another chatter. This time it was a Dutchman. My boredom vanished.

Christmas was approaching, the millennium was closing in and my days were filled with MSN Messenger and emails. After our initial meeting I never entered a chat room again. Online chatting turned into a phone call on New Year’s Eve. Talking on the telephone turned in to visits to each other’s homes.

Seven months later my boss changed at work. She had a reputation of bringing in her own people wherever she went. My business trips planned months ahead were suddenly superfluous and I whispered to my dad that something was afoot. Something bad was looming. He told me I was being paranoid.

Then one evening, sure enough, I was summoned to the dragon’s den. She informed me that my position would end in two months. Walking home with tears streaming down my face I made a call to the Netherlands with my mobile phone. I shared the lowlights of my evening and told my Dutch partner that I needed to find a job fast so that my mortgage didn’t become a problem.

“Or instead of finding a new job there, you could move to the Netherlands…” he said and I could hear the smile on his face.

And suddenly I was back on the path I was destined to walk on.

Floundering news start-ups need help

Although nearly $26 million was donated to 50 non-profit journalism start-ups in recent years, most are flubbing the mission-critical task of finding ways to financially sustain their efforts for the long term. 

The casual approach at most news start-ups to the serious business of identifying next-generation models for journalism has got to stop. More on that in a moment.  First, the background

What’s your digital strategy? First, get a grip.

More often than you would think, an editor or publisher will contact me to ask, “What should my digital strategy be?”  

The inquiry is alarming on a number of levels.  First, because it has taken nearly two decades after the commercial arrival of the Internet for many newspaper executives to seriously tackle the seminal existential question facing their businesses. Second, because this question