The WordPress Marketing Bloggers Network

This is an idea from Rick at EyeCube, still in its early stages but already heading somewhere.
Where it will end up is largely down to us and others who will hopefully join the WordPress Marketing Bloggers Network (see the second blogroll to the right).
We cover different areas, different issues, work in different countries and yet [...]

Blogging in newspapers - the 3Cs still apply

One of my old editors kept banging on about the 3Cs - credibility, credibility, credibility.
If there was one basic mistake in a front-page exclusive splash then that story was ruined in his eyes.
His attitude irritated the hell out of me when I was a reporter because I felt he couldn’t see the bigger picture - [...]

Abandon all hope for journalism

The public’s trust in journalists has dropped significantly in recent years.
Is anyone surprised?
Today has seen a classic example of why the profession is suffering such a bad image.
The Sun splashes a “world exclusive” about twin baby girls abandoned by their ageing parents ”because they were the wrong sex” at a Midlands hospital after being conceived through [...]

Google vs The Belgians

The all-seeing search engine giant Google is facing a £39m damages claim from Belgian newspapers for publishing and storing their content without paying or asking permission.
In 2007, Google lost a lawsuit filed by a number of French-language Belgian newspapers and was forced to remove their content which had been posted on Google News and stored in its search engine [...]

Men and motors on The Apprentice

Is The Apprentice good for business?
It is a question some are asking again as this latest series goes down to the wire.
The answer really hasn’t changed since last year’s series. It wasn’t good for business then and given this year’s paucity of quality candidates it has arguably been even worse this year.
It is a bit [...]

Welcome to Japan - here’s your cannabis

An over-confident Japanese customs officer has handed over 142g to an unsuspecting air passenger after a test involving a sniffer dog went badly wrong.
The officer placed the package of drugs in a randomly selected piece of luggage at Tokyo’s Narita airport.
The plan was to test security procedures and give the sniffer dog a realistic scenario - [...]

Paying the price for diving into the media pool

I have a certain amount of sympathy for the authorities in Australia who suggest two divers rescued after 18 hours lost at sea off the Great Barrier Reef should contribute to the cost of the operation.
There is a certain amount of disgruntled mumbling coming from the land down under after the couple - a British man and [...]

Coca-Cola aid campaign - sing the song

Yet further news from Simon Berry regarding the campaign he launched to persuade Coca-Cola to start delivering aid along their bottles of fizzy pop.
Eve Graham, who sang the original I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing which was subsequently used in Coke’s worldwide TV ads, has rewritten the lyrics to fit in with the [...]

Time to ditch Eurovision

We need to get out more, collectively as a nation and individually.
This latest blinding flash of bleeding obvious revelation came to me as the feelings of self-righteousness and mis-placed indignation began to rise with the voting in full swing on Eurovision 2008.
Why did I bother? Why didn’t I just switch off, or take my wife out [...]

The man from Coca-Cola says: “Let’s chat”

Excellent news from Simon Berry, the man who has set up the Facebook group calling on Coca-Cola to use their distributions channels to get basic medical aid to developing countries.
The company’s Global Director for Stakeholder Relations has suggested a “chat” with Simon regarding the idea.
No promises, no bold pledges. But that was never likely.
A foot in [...]