Shortlist - the second issue

It's a shame almost. This second issue is so much better than the first issue of Shortlist featuring Daniel Craig that came out last week.

Lewis Hamilton might be the man of the moment and on many covers, but it is still refreshing to see him on the front of a men's magazine. Inside there is a feature over four pages covering all you need to know about the great British F1 hope.

There is much more to like inside this issue. It is more polished and the front cover is certainly more colourful. It has been tweaked and looks the better for it.

It's good to see a few weightier subjects with a mention of Iraq and the Blackwater debacle involving trigger-happy US private security forces. And a piece on Vladimir Putin as well on the international front.

There is the gratuitous pic of some Brazilian model in the centre, which lets things down. She's a model. Period. There is nothing more to say about her (yes she looks great, but so what?). Please an actress or someone with something to say (Mariane Pearl? Angelina Jolie? Either or both). There are so few women in this issue and they give space to a fantastic-looking clothes horse. Poor.

Sadly, there seems to be no follow-up video of Mike Soutar explaining how to hand out Shortlist. Shame, that was great work, a repeat performance is definitely needed Mike.

What did you think?

Oliviero Toscani returns with shock and bones

Former Benetton creative director, Oliviero Toscani, is back and on familiar ground with a 'shock' ad of a woman suffering from anorexia.

 

Murdoch remains smartest man on the block

As Facebook valuations hit new heights today with talk of figures of $10bn being bandied around, and as high as $15bn, Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of rival MySpace is looking like a very smart move.Not only smart, but a fantastic investment, but this wasn't always the case. At the time in 2005 some people were saying that £580m was a lot of cash.

Now the truth has been revealed and while $580m is a lot of cash, it is nothing compared with what he would have to pay now to gain control of MySpace, still the market leader.

Microsoft or Google, who are both interested in taking stakes in Facebook, will get just 5% of Facebook for that kind of money if it is lucky. It might have to pay more if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg holds out for more. And he might. He has proved pretty good at holding out so far.

Last year, he knocked the idea of Yahoo! buying his venture for $900m out of the park. He wasn't interested.

All of this on the back of a company that makes next to no cash. Not yet at least.

The problem with the valuations, like many dotcom valuations, is that they have little basis in financial reality. Facebook does not reveal how much income it makes and its only revenues are thought to be advertising income from a deal with Microsoft. The Financial Times quoted a report by Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield, which estimated that the company brought in $60m-$96m in annual revenue and no profit to speak of.

Greenfield said: "There may be competitive reasons to be connected to this asset beyond what the specific valuation is today. You may be paying a premium to keep others out.”

It appears the smart way to now go is to go it alone. Zuckerberg doesn't need to sell. He just needs to build the business, which is what he appears to be doing. He needs cash to expand and that cash is readily forthcoming.

This is still very early days in social media. We are all still feeling our way and working out what is possible and what is not.

New ideas are spilling onto the page all the time. Yesterday, MySpace opened up new ground in the mobile space by rolling out a mobile version. I was thinking about this as I played with my Crackberry last night while sending a message on Facebook and half watching something on TV.

I want to work at BBH

No not me, but this ad for Bartle Bogle Hegarty's graduate recruitment scheme is excellent – knowing, fresh and funny. Take a look.

Considering there has been much talk recently in our forums over whether BBH's days producing top work are over, this seems to suggest that someone at the agency can still make very good work indeed.

Shame it can't do it for some of its clients. The British Airways ad (BBH's first), as many have now said, was a disappointing, flat, and, by the looks of it, a very expensive piece of work.

One person compared it to a "corporate video from the 1980s by mistake". Not what you would expect for BBH's first piece of work for an iconic brand like BA.

James Hamilton on Campaign put it this way: "it wasn't until the familiar old music kicked in that I realised it was a BA ad. BA uniforms simply aren't iconic enough to convey the message until way too late in the ad".

Still, free coffee and muffins? Sounds like a good place to work.

Mike Soutar explains shortlist

Sadly I was on an away day yesterday, So I apologise that I wasn't able to share my immediate reactions to Shortlist. In the meantime, Mike Soutar has helpfully starred in this video explaining just how Shortlist should be delivered to the freebie loving public...

Whoever thought it was a good idea to release this piece of video needs a little talking. This YouTube clip is not going to make any one's list of lists. Soutar is by all accounts a standup guy, which probably only makes this more amusing.

As for the magazine itself, I think as many people have already said it was quite good. "Quite" being the operative word. Yes, it had lists, yes it was bite size, but there was nothing to get your teeth into. It did not delight and it did not surprise. Nice effort, but it looked like a dummy or a work in progress, which clearly suffered in the rush to market.

Fight for Kisses Wilkinson Sword

It's French, it's kind of weird. It's Wilkinson Sword with a kick arse baby fighting for kisses at least that's what I think it is. Take a look.

It was created by JWT Paris and it is only running online. Well let's face it this ad would never get on TV. It's funny, but it is a little icky as well. Not entirely sure why that is. Question is who wins out in the end for mother's attention? The ninja baby? Dad? or Freud?

The end of paid-for content?

The New York Times has put another nail in the coffin of paid-for content on the web as it opens up its archive to readers for free.

The NY Times had been one of the few major international newspaper brands online to charge for content. Now only the Wall Street Journal Online and the FT.com remain.

With speculation that Rupert Murdoch will dump subscription charges for the WSJ.com when he takes control, which will also end the FT.com's chances of remaining a paid-for site, it won’t have a choice but to join the WSJ.com in the free-content world or suffer the consequences as Murdoch bares down on the Pink 'un. 

In a letter to readers posted on its website today, the NY Times said that it is ending charges for TimesSelect as of tomorrow allowing all of its online readers to read Times columnists dating back to 1987. 

Paying customers will receive a refund. But why now and why the change? Simple, the paper says the online landscape has altered significantly with the rise of search in news and social networks. And it is about reaching a broader audience -- beyond the few who are willing to pay.

"Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources. In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to NY Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand and the long-term vitality of our journalism. We encourage everyone to read our news and opinion, as well as share it, link to it and comment on it.

"We welcome all online readers to enjoy the popular and powerful voices that have defined Times commentary. All this will now reach a broader audience in the United States and around the world."

There was a time -- and it was, in dotcom terms at least, long ago -- when paid-for content still held out a possibility, with many early sites charging readers for access. At Haymarket we pushed forward with the subscription model on what was CampaignLive.com. We continued this policy all the way through the early days of Brand Republic until earlier this year.

Many other sites were charging as well, such as Silicon Valley's local newspaper the San Jose Mercury News.

But in the land grab for online space there was a moment of doubt and many working in the early days of the internet did not think that people would pay for content. Sure content was king, just not paid-for content.

The argument was simple. If you make people pay they will go elsewhere, and if they go elsewhere you won't get them back. It was a huge leap. Suddenly all of this content that consumers paid hard cash for on the newsstand was free. Newspapers like the Guardian went from early experiments to very quickly giving it away.

As that paper pushes itself as the global liberal voice online you can imagine that executives at the New York Times Company across the Atlantic were looking at that and thinking they are going for our readers and we have to do something about it. They did, and very soon someone else will do something more about it and that will probably be Murdoch, and it will probably be over as far as paid content goes.

Women without clothes not needed

Or at least this seems to be the way that Phil Hilton, the former Nuts editor, and now editor of soon-to-launch free men's magazine shortlist is leaning, which is refreshing.

He writes a piece in The Independent today that sheds some light on what we can expect from Shortlist (is it just me or is the name not quite there? By there I mean crap, of course, but don't really want to say, as I think Mike Soutar's idea is a winner overall and so am trying to avoid that journalistic temptation to be negative and knock things down).

I digress. Hilton writes that when he first had the idea pitched to him his initial reaction was this: 

"I've been locked in a ferocious newsstand battle for three years in which the biggest single factor in winning readers was women, without clothes, on the cover, every week. If it was free, I say, thinking aloud, we could put all kinds of things in it... we could... put men on the cover!" 

It's a revelation, but it must be liberating as well. The paid-for men's magazine market is generally a fairly low form of life (that said, talking of men on covers, this month's GQ is rather good, and it does have men on the cover – but it is the "men's issue"). 

Shortlist was initially codenamed Bulldozer (which soon changes to Alpha One). The name issue is clearly one that took up sometime and it seems, to me at least, resulted in a compromise. 

"We could call the magazine 'Sandi Toksvig' and imagine it printed on Tupperware if we wished (it is, for a brief period, called Reporter). We need something to hang our thoughts on. Someone on the team needs the breakthrough moment, the flash of inspiration that will take us into covers we can test on consumers. It turns out not to be me. Gallingly, it is Mike." 

Hilton reveals that Soutar comes up with the idea on the back on Nick Hornby. He gets everywhere doesn't he? But hey everyone loved 'About a Boy' and 'High Fidelity'. And he's right. Just this weekend I was asked for my top 10 list of films. I struggled for ages. Changed my mind, but then delivered. I then wanted to change my mind again. I know only women are allowed to do this, but when it comes to lists men are as well. There's a rule. And if there isn't a rule then there should one. 

"The magazine should be called ShortList and it should feature lots of entertaining and informative lists," Hilton writes. 

You can see the leap -- lists, top 10 lists, shortlists. OK. 

In June, the group market research the idea and Hilton has a surprise or two, but it shouldn't be a surprise. Hilton is supposed to know something about men… OK teenage boys.

"It's clear we're on to something. These suit-wearing men-about-town are let down by the lads' mags, which they see as peddling smut for adolescents. They feel pretty strongly about it. I try to look scientific and detached and not like the former editor of Nuts. The surprise is their appetite for meaty, heavy subject matter. They really warm to covers with a current-affairs theme," Hilton says. 

It's a shocker isn't it? Men what something they can get their teeth into and it doesn't have to be all about naked women. Well blow me down with a blow-me-down thing.

The dummies Hilton and Soutar have been producing sound encouraging. One to show investors had Osama bin Laden on the front and it is a "huge hit in the research groups". The shock continues.

IPA bans Facebook and other social media sites

What's with the IPA? It has banned the use of social networking sites like Facebook. It says it is worried about a "lack of confidentiality and privacy", but this seems like a poor excuse.How is the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising ever going to say ahead of the curve if it bans people from using social media sites as a means of communication?

Here's what the IPA says: "The IPA Council has ruled against the use of social networking sites as a means of communication in the course of any IPA business, either between the Secretariat and IPA members, or between members.

"The IPA believes that the lack of confidentiality and privacy involved in using social networking sites, rules them out as a means of carrying out IPA business."

There's more: specifically the IPA says the following is prohibited and vetoed (vetoed/prohibited? Who writes this stuff?):

• It prohibits IPA Committees and Groups from using social networking sites as a way of communicating to its members
• It vetoes any IPA material, logos, group discussions or personal data of other IPA members from being uploaded on to social networking sites

Don't sweat it though. Email and phones are still allowed.

The IPA says it has also issued "internal guidance notes on the use of social networking sites for its staff". You know what that will say - hit your veto/prohibit buzzer now.

Reality bites

Much of the trouble with “original” online content is that it's not very good, but now that is starting to change with the likes of Hollywood names Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick making broadcast calibre TV for the web, with a 20nothing drama first up in a deal with MySpace.

Herskovitz and Zwick, who have between them been behind the likes of films 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Last Samurai' and TV hits like 'Thirtysomething' and 'My So-Called Life'  are to produce a 20nothing drama called 'Quarterlife' about graduates trying to deal with life after college.

It's 'Reality Bites' for the zeros with blogging and the internet as opposed to MTV.

In an interview with the New York Times Herskovitz said 'Quarterlife', with top TV writers and directors would produce hour-long episodes broken into six shorter segments, with a new one posted on MySpace TV each Sunday and Thursday night, beginning November 11.

I'd always been sceptical about the original content thing, but if you can watch original material like this online then people will watch it in the same way that they watch uploaded broadcast content online.

"This is the single best produced piece of serialized content for the internet, ever," said Jeff Berman, general manager of MySpace TV.

'Quarterlife', however, is about more than a show. A quarterlife.com website is planned that will not only promote the show but, it is hoped, will become a portal for viewers in their 20s who are looking to break into creative and professional worlds.

This is a series that is planned to start on a social networking site, then make the jump to the web generally and then finally, possibly at least, onto TV and DVD. That's the future, for the time being you can watch a clip on the site.

Funnily enough the future comes from the past, so to speak. As 'Quarterlife' is based on a pilot Herskovitz and Zwick created several years ago called '1/4 Life', terrible name…oh wait, I see what they did, genius. The pilot was rejected by ABC, but having been rewritten its time has come online.

The stars of 'Quarterlife are relative unknowns but they do include Bitsie Tulloch who, among other things, starred  in 'Lonelygirl 15' the web’s serial that was at one stage thought to be a real diary.

We are six

It's a big day in many senses, but it is also Brand Republic's sixth birthday. The site has gone through many changes since it launched and there are many more to come.

This year, however, has been a significant one for Brand Republic after our major relaunch in February, which gave the site a completely new look and feel.

It's one that I feel works so much better, giving us more scope and options in how we present content to you, our readers. We have entered the world of social media with blogs and expanded our forums. We are working on more developments in that area.

I won't go over all the changes we have introduced, but these appear to have gone down well with many, not least the AOP judges who shortlisted Brand Republic for two awards: best design and best business website.

We have come along way in other senses, having built the site to hit more than 2m pages impressions a month and more than 250,000 unique users. These are numbers that continue to grow as the site expands in the UK and internationally.

There's much to look forward to as we spend a moment looking back. Having your launch party on 9/11 2001 made for a sobering occasion, but it is one from which we have all moved on, but not forgotten.

Thelondonpaper one year on

So it's happy birthday to thelondonpaper, the free paper that has livened things up for London's commuters, made a strong play to popularise the colour purple, and is the cause of consternation for sub-editors everywhere.

News International's entry into the free newspaper market probably could not have gone better.

It has shaken up its rival, Associated Newspapers, forcing it to launch its own rather inkier freesheet, London Lite, and rattled The Evening Standard, which has long needed a challenge. The Standard, which Campaign today reports is considering bringing back its listings title Hot Tickets in an effort to boost circulation, is down 15.62% year on year to 275,186.

This challenge was further underlined yesterday, with news that thelondonpaper is to hire Alexa Baracaia, the London Evening Standard's media and showbusiness correspondent, as arts and entertainment editor in November. That has to hurt a little.

There is much to celebrate. Thelondonpaper has come out top in its circulation tussle with London Lite, distributing 500,563 copies in July to London Lite's 400,571, and survived spoiler campaigns to boot.

Yes, there is the spelling of the all lowercase/single word name (thelondonpaper), which causes some confusion, but that is a minor annoyance.

The paper is a good speed read and has always felt fresher and looked more designed than its rival, and now with a deal in hand with Westminster Council over issues of rubbish and recycling the streets should be cleaner as well.

The paper, and its rival for that matter, has added much to the London media market, which along with Metro and City AM seems to be thriving despite speculation by naysayers that the market could not take such launches.

It is also providing unexpected opportunities, as Brand Republic reported earlier this week that News International is using the idea of  thelondonpaper's street vendors to sell copies of The Sun, as part of its 20p cover price initiative in London.

Wheatcroft plays digital Canute

Some reports suggest that one of the reasons behind Patience Wheatcroft's exit from her job as editor of the Sunday Telegraph was her attitude towards the paper's digital revolution.

Wheatcroft is said to have been antagonistic towards the Telegraph’s digital revolution, which has been led by Daily Telegraph editor Will Lewis.

She was apparently against her staff working on the paper's seven-day web operation and "virtually" no-one on the Sunday had taken part in the Telegraph's successful podcasts either, according to the Evening Standard.

The Guardian reported on a meeting that took place this morning where incoming editor, Ian MacGregor - who joins from Lewis' team at the Daily - addressed staff .

The meeting was apparently also attended by Lewis, now editor-in-chief of the two titles, and Richard Ellis, the executive director of editorial of the Telegraph Media Group. Wheatcroft was briefly praised at the meeting and the reason given for her departure at the meeting was "strategic" differences.

"That was taken to mean a failure to embrace the internet," the insider told the Guardian.

While there is sure to be more to her departure from the Telegraph Group, it seems almost madness that in 2007 a newspaper editor could play the role of some King Canute, trying to resist the tide and oppose digital progress as newspaper sales shrink and newspaper editors flex there digital muscles.

The Sunday Telegraph is far from immune to this. Its six-month average figure was down by 2.57% year on year to 656,234 copies.

The Guardian for many years led the way digitally. The Times has since caught up and the Telegraph has come on in great leaps and bounds.

Telegraph Media Group gained the highest number of shortlisted entries in this year's AOP awards, with 11, including four for My Telegraph, closely followed by Guardian News & Media’s nine shortlisted entries, 

In the most recent sent of digital ABCs, Telegraph.co.uk posted 9m unique users in July, almost a 2m jump on its figures from June. It also narrowly beat Times Online with 78m page impressions.

However, the Guardian Unlimited network, covering www.guardian.co.uk and observer.co.uk, is still the one to beat. It held onto its commanding position, receiving 16.1m unique users in July, a jump of around 1.5m from the month before. Its page impressions totalled 157m, while its unique users listed from the UK only totalled 5.9m or 37% of total UK unique users.