MP committee tells press industry: Toughen up regulator or face feared Section 40 February 23, 2017 A group of MPs has called on the press industry to toughen up its regulator or face the much-feared Section 40. Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee today published a report calling for the industry’s preferred regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), to make itself compliant with recommendations set out by Lord Justice Leveson after [...]
Baffling people into buying works – but drop the jargon, say it like it is February 23, 2017 According to a recent study conducted by Britain Thinks, women are wary of investing their cash in financial products, because they are turned off by the jargon the industry employs in its ads. Not just women, I’ll wager. Last year the Financial Conduct Authority warned banks against their persistent use of jargon. “All too often [...]
Amazon, Confused.com and Just Eat help TV advertising market grow February 23, 2017 Online companies like Amazon, Just Eat and Moneysupermarket are spending more and more on TV advertising. In total, TV adspend crept up 0.2 per cent in 2016 to £5.3bn, the seventh successive year of growth. Read more: News Corp posts second loss in a row amid print advertising headwinds A Thinkbox analysis of Nielsen figures shows [...]
BBC to launch new TV channel for Scotland with £30m budget February 22, 2017 The BBC has announced plans to launch a new TV channel for Scotland, with a budget equivalent to that of BBC4. Director general Tony Hall said today that the channel would launch in the autumn of 2018. Read more: Fake news and echo chambers help BBC Radio 4's Today hit audience record It will have [...]
YouTube’s double standards in banning PewDiePie February 20, 2017 If you've ever wondered what on earth a PewDiePie is, you’re not alone. He’s a man, Felix Kjellberg, who reviews video games online. In the YouTube world, he’s as famous as James Corden, as influential as Nick Robinson, and as we found out last week, as funny as Jim Davidson. “Very rich Swedish man pays [...]
Search engines team up with film, TV and music industries to combat piracy February 20, 2017 Google and Bing are teaming up with the UK’s £87bn creative industries to combat piracy. The search engines will adhere to a voluntary code of practice, so that websites infringing on copyrighted content appear lower in search results. Improvements will also be made to autocomplete suggestions so that they are less likely to lead users [...]
Activist investor takes swipe at Johnston Press chief executive after building up 21 per cent stake February 17, 2017 The activist investor building up a stake in Johnston Press has taken a first public swipe at the newspaper group’s chief executive since becoming its biggest shareholder. Richard Bernstein, who leads the Crystal Amber fund, has told City A.M. he lacks “confidence” in Johnston Press boss Ashley Highfield to lead the company out of trouble. [...]
How can brands avoid social media crises? February 16, 2017 The London Dungeon apologised this week after its “dark Valentine campaign” on social media drew widespread criticism. This incident got me revisiting a familiar issue: how can brands avoid social media crises? With policies, practice runs and neutral second opinions. There are often just a few origins for social media crises: Misjudgement: Brands can [...]
Jack Dorsey gave Twitter a really expensive Valentine’s Day present February 15, 2017 Twitter founder Jack Dorsey celebrated Valentine's Day with a big confidence boost for the social network. Dorsey bought just over $7m (£5.6m) worth of Twitter stock – and of course, tweeted about it, using the romantic hashtag #LoveTwitter. #LoveTwitter https://t.co/fELbw0ska7 — jack (@jack) February 14, 2017 The Twitter boss, who also founded (and is, controversially, chief executive of) payments company [...]
Make the Thames Estuary a hub for creativity, says Khan February 13, 2017 London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has unveiled his vision for turning the Thames Estuary into a world-class hub for the arts. Included within the mayor’s “vision document” is a theatre complex in Bexley, an experiential arts centre in Woolwich, and a new production facility in Dagenham East that would be the capital’s largest film studios if completed. [...]