Andres Wittermann on international media relations trends

Trying To Save Printed Media

Finally someone has the courage to save the world of printed press: The German government today launched the "Nationale Initiative Printmedien" (do I really have to translate that?). This initiative wants to encourage young people to read more printed media.

Whereas I am always glad to see how someone tries to save quality (and I think that is what they are trying to do or what they THINK they are trying to do). I am just not sure if this is a vain effort.

Just yesterday I attended a "Media Accused" event in London (ahem, organized by LEWIS) with Nick Davies, author of "Flat Earth News". This book basically deals with the loss of quality journalism in (formerly) quality press. No-one really argued this is happening. No-one really was able to find a solution to the problem.

I wish I would believe the German government is able to bring back quality into the printed media - as this is the only way out of the problem. Seeing how owners of the big quality papers all over Europe are continuing to cut costs (basically cutting back the workforce of editors) I am not sure how this initiative will be successful. Who wants to read old news? And who really wants to read entertaining stories in a newspaper when you can watch TV - or get it all on the internet?

The problem of quality journalism lies deeper. And one initiative won't help I am afraid. Especially when it is backed by journalist and publishers associations as they are at the core of the problem.

Nice blogging feature on Facebook

I just added Blog It on Facebook, a nice little app to directly send basic blog posts from Facebook. Looks like a useful tool (if limited), especially as you can also update your Twitter account as well through it. Not sure how widely spread this is, but it certainly serves Facebook well to become a central application in your day to day work.

Launch of TV on iTunes Going Bad

It seems that Apple missed a big opportunity when launching TV content on German iTunes this week.

The initial feedback showed that the audience was completely taken by surprise. E.g. Werbeblogger complained that he could not find the full offerings (it seems to me he simply had not downloaded a new version of iTunes yet). So I think the preparation could have been done better.

Now the users are feeding back on different forums, blogs and inside iTunes. Feedback is that it is too expensive (one old Harald Schmidt show for €2? are they serious?), only having shows on offer which have been on TV already, only offering German audio (and people really want the original version), etc. etc.

It seems that Apple trusts to be successful in the long run. A bit arrogant if you ask me. But in the end it will certainly be successful as it is from Apple, you may say. Well, I would not be that sure. There are so many other Internet TV offering s out there these days that it is only a question of time until people will be able to access at least old TV content in English for free (from Europe) without going to suspicious websites. I really wonder if Apple's TV approach can be successful - and if they should not have prepared this better at least this time.

Reputation management by Youtube

I just found an interesting video on Youtube where I am not sure exactly how old it is (seems about three days, but it might be much older).

Still, I find it very interesting - it shows Queen Rania of Jordan talking about Arabic culture and how surprised people will be learning everything about a country like Jordan. I find it very interesting they chose Youtube as a platform to launch a conversation / discussion on that topic. The 815 comments so far are showing this seems to work.

I wonder what happens next and how they will continue this dialogue. But it is (and will be) certainly something to learn from.