The great media debate – a damp squib?

Last Monday saw the much trumpeted debate on the state of the Midlands media take place in Birmingham. Sadly, it turned out to be little more than a lengthy attack on Trinity Mirror’s stewardship of the two main newspaper titles in the city, the Mail and the Post.

Michael Jackson’s death resurrects the new media / old media debate

It was as easy as ABC for social media sites to start spreading news of Michael Jackson’s death last week. Unfettered by the conventions of the established media, rumours of the star’s death began emanating across the social media spectrum within minutes of his actual passing.

Fantasy football

Just received the latest online news bulletin from ‘Insider’ magazine, and couldn’t resist commenting on one of their news items. The story in question concerns well-known pornographer David Sullivan, who is also the co-owner of my favourite football team (not), Birmingham-based Small Heath Alliance FC.

New iPhone – but only on O2 (boo to that)

Apple have announced the new iPhone 3G S this week, which sounds pretty good, but unfortunately they are still allowing the ghastly O2 a monopoly on this product. Why do I say ‘ghastly’? Well, about a year ago we (Headline) bought an iPhone – it was from the O2 shop in New Street. And I [...]

Money, football and MPs

There’s been a couple of stories in the media this week about football and money, two subjects which seem inextricably linked. First, Deloitte announced that the total revenue earned by the Premier League clubs reached £1.9bn during 2008/09 – at the same time, the poor old 72 Football League clubs could only manage a meagre £500m. The [...]

Dame Ann Leslie – a titan of Fleet Street

One of the best media events I’ve been to recently was the appearance by Dame Ann Leslie at a Birmingham Press Club celebrity lunch. For those who don’t know, Dame Ann is one of last of the titans of Fleet Street. She actually began her career in Manchester at the ‘Daily Express’, a paper which [...]

Pen portrait – not politically correct!

Welcome to our new blog-based web site – by way of kicking things off, blog-wise, I thought I would do a pen portrait, along the same lines as the one that makes a daily appearance in Birmingham’s daily newspaper, ‘The Birmingham Post.’ The ‘Post’ pen portrait is a bit of a talking point in our [...]