Blurred Keys

'State' music magazine to go free

Following rumours of closure and then a very strange statement, the high quality Irish music magazine is to drop its cover price.

And you apparently don't have to worry if your outside large distribution areas, State will post the magazine to you for "no more than the real price of postage and packing".

As Jim Carroll points out: "Oh and that line about 'the first Quality National Music Monthly available completely free of charge'? Surely, the lads and lasses at State also read Analogue magazine which happens to be a quality national music monthly available completely free of charge?"

Here's the press release...

Village magizine to stop publishing

Vincent Browne's Village magazine is to cease publishing, he called the process a "suspension," and said to the Irish Independent that he hoped to resume printing in future. The magazine's website, Village.ie, will continue, although it is currently off-line for updating.

After previous cuts in the workforce, the three remaining staff will be let go.

He told the Irish Times the move is due to "a significant downturn in advertising and the cancellation of special contract publications we were undertaking for third parties."

Village was expecting to make a small profit this year, but the contract publications were central to this. In a recent interview with Marketing magazine Browne said: "My only backer, Michael Smith, lost about €260,000 and I lost in the region of €1.2 million. Village is going to be a marginal exercise but we can make money on contract publishing and we should make significant money on the website".

Irish media news round-up (July/August)

A round-up of news, comment and other info from news sites blogs, and message boards etc...

Cardinal challenges the media's 'dominant' secular view
Sunday World top of the pops as it avoids musical marketing
Ireland's papers defy downward trends
JNLR July 07-June 08 Survey results issued (PDF)
ABC IofI report (PDF, link replaced when new report released)
Tom Dunne to Newstalk
Today FM to preserve Pet Sounds
Ray of sunshine
Muzu makes music pa
Media world: Too Late Late for Pat Kenny?
RTE promises 'spectacular' first Late Late Show despite Kenny's delay in signing up
Lung cancer under reported in Irish media - report
Sunday Times to launch monthly Irish edition of Style magazine
South Ossetian man angered by Irish media coverage
MediaBite Email Re: The €11m 'gas bill'
Media ought to beware groups bearing surveys
Belfast Telegraph relaunched website sees huge traffic spike
Myers and Nigerians
RTE Television unveils new season
Sponsors fail to check in to Failte Towers
The Big Switch over
BCI National Conference Asks ‘Does the Medium Matter?’
O'Brien group told January DTT launch is a 'fantasy'
Digital terrestrial TV available from autumn next year
Adverts rate alert for Channel 6
TV3 to buy Channel 6 for €10m
Is RTE Radio 1 being dumbed down?
Mandy and the Irish Media

Hyping the ordinary into the extraordinary

Fintan O'Toole in the Irish Times today talks about "the hyping-up of the ordinary into the extraordinary". In the article he mentions journalism's part in the in the hyperbole...   

Journalism, of course, has a lot to do with all of this. The tabloid thesaurus in which every murderer is a monster, every rapist a beast and every piece of celebrity tittle-tattle a sensation, is becoming the vocabulary of the mainstream media too.

Of course, tabloids are not the only culprits by any means. For one local newepaper we read, an aim to cut road deaths is hyped to "frightening number of deaths", and new trains which don't have reclining chairs, don't have a first class carriages, and don't currently have any dining carriages, some-how are “luxurious” trains. We're surprised when there isn't superfluous words in their news.

I've heard excuses along the lines of it makes content more interisting, but nonsense hyperbole slowly chips away at people's fate in journalism. Is saying this hyperbolic in its self? No, because what are too often brushed away as just a little mistake and, in this case, just a little bit of hype is exactly what erodes the public's confidence in journalism. 

Half of Ombudsman's and Press Council's decisions so-far relate to Katy French

Half of the decisions published so far by the Press Ombudsman relate to model Katy French, reports the Sunday Business Post. Read the article here, or the Ombudsman's and Press Council of Ireland's decisions in full here.

Vincent Browne interviewed (link)

Vincent Browne talks to Marketing magizine about getting sacked by RTE, his Nightly News show on TV3, the Sunday Tribune, what he thinks of Independent News & Media and much more. Read it here. (vie Fergus Cassidy)

Irish media news round-up (April/May)

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, here's a bit of a news round-up...

- Broadcast Bill carries 'right to reply'
- Bill proposes single broadcast regulator
- Irish paper group seeks £8m help
- Press Council member quits over policy *
- Council's suppression of dissenting voice forced me to quit *
- Clarify Privacy Bill's limbo status - FG*
- O'Brien-backed group puts case for DTT licence*
- Metro director to leave paper 
- Sir Anthony scoops Media Person of the Year award
* = (subs reqd)

Irish media's problem - no manners

Or at least that's what Gayle Killilea wrote for the Sunday Independent after seeing a group of Irish newspaper reporters staying quite at the former Taoiseach's address to Congress...   

...I made my feelings clear about the media behaviour to Charlie Bird when I met him on Wednesday evening. He said that he had clapped. And I believe he did, the broadcast media were seated in a different section of the house to the print media, and did not seem to be infected by the same negativity.

However, he defended their behaviour by asserting that it is normal for journalists to sit impassively during such occasions. This suggests that it is normal for the Irish media to be impartial and detached, which of course they are not. The Irish media are not impartial or detached, the articles that they write demonstrate that...

- Gayle Killilea, Sunday Independent

Student media awards 2008 winners

UPDATE: The winners for 2009 3 Student Media Awards, Smedias, are now here.

The Irish student media awards, the Three Smedias, were held in Tripod last night, bellow are the all the winners (in bold and orange) followed by the other nominees...

Irish student media awards nominees

UPDATE: The winners for 2009 3 Student Media Awards, Smedias, are now here.

The nominations for the 2008 Smedia awards - the Irish student media awards - have been announced.

Although the nominees in three categories have yet to be revealed, the vast majority are available at the organiser's website, oxygen.ie.

The awards take place on Tuesday night at Tripod in Dublin.