Sporting chance of a job

BAMMJ and MAMMJ jobs alert: did everyone see that The Sportsman is hiring? The newspaper and website needs journalists ahead of its launch in a few weeks' time. I noticed that they had separate jobs ads in The Guardian for the paper and online. Double your chances and apply for both - after all, they will want someone who knows how to place a bet.

I see they have just appointed a greyhound editor. I'd love to read their expenses sheet.

Pods v Vods

Podcasting is high up on the menu of most websites but video podcasts are the new dish of the day. The BBC was ahead of the game on vodcasts but I see The Scotsman has started experimenting with them and regional titles (the ones who invested in radio and websites such as the Kent Messenger Group) are also launching video news services. Companies such as BMW are testing the value of vods in their marketing campaigns.

What has the biggest impact and potential? The podcast has had the upper hand for the time poor who want to listen on their way to or from work. Who really wants to download a video podcast - isn't it just the telly but on a tiny screen? Or have I missed something? I don't really need to see what the reporter looks like to help me understand the story.

But perhaps I am showing my age. I can't imagine watching a film on my mobile and I haven't downloaded a single video on my lovely new iPod - although when Prince releases his new album I might make an exception. I suspect the vodcast will win - commentary and images can be a compelling formula. You just have to get it right - go to Snowballs.pc.com for tips on how to get the best out of podcasting and vodcasting.

Did someone mention vlogs?

How to make a million

A lesson on how to make money from the web by Alex Tew - the 21-year-old student and creator of milliondollarhomepage.com.

Pulp friction

How much are you prepared to pay for a newspaper? Simon Kelner, editor of The Independent, thinks readers would be happy to pay £1 for a daily and £2 for a Sunday. It would have to be a mighty fine product to persuade me that this is anything more than pulp fiction. Most journalists get their newspapers and magazines for free in the office so it comes as a shock when they actually have to pay for one themselves.

This morning I bought a few nationals, the London Evening Standard, Vogue and The Economist. If I had wanted to cut back, the dailies would have been first to go (I can get most of it free on the web) and, perhaps, I would have junked The Economist - £3.10 seems a bit steep. That would have left me with Vogue, the most expensive of the lot at £3.40. Why? First, it's a beautiful magazine with a few decent articles. Second, it doesn't and will never translate on the web - see what I mean?! Third, it keeps forever, doesn't turn yellow, or give the living room that hobo at home look. Yep, it's what our marketing chums call a premium product - so maybe Kelner might be on to something after all.

As Wired put it a while back: "Imagine what higher-ups at the Post must have thought when focus-group participants declared they wouldn't accept a Washington Post subscription even if it were free. The main reason (and I'm not making this up): They didn't like the idea of old newspapers piling up in their houses."

However, Peter Wilby in today's Standard, refuses to be pessimistic about newspapers. "Newspapers have strong brands and may will establish them online, as The Guardian, particulary, has done. Perhaps the web will eventually become a newspaper's main medium, with the printed version surviving as a niche luxury, rather like a leather-bound book."

But the question remains: how much would readers be prepared to pay for it?

Alastair Campbell goes AOL

In Piers Morgan's 'The Insider' he describes Labour's 1997 campaign HQ as a "ruthless machine with the latest technology to support it." However, Tony Blair's former media henchman Alastair Campbell doesn't remember it quite like that and on Radio 4's Start the Week he admitted to his technophobe tendencies during a discussion about politics and the internet.

Now out of government (or so he would like us to believe) he has written about what he calls technopolitics for AOL and reveals: "I have had to learn to do things for myself a lot more. Allelujah, I can do e-mail." Well done, Ally! He's not so evangelical, however, about the power of the web and says it is unlikely to quickly replace TV as a medium to broadcast communications to mass audiences. Campbell believes its future role in politics lies in different directions - building campaign networks, fundraising, local information and stirring debate.

The US has shown the way. For a quick lowdown read Steve McGookin's, take on it. He's currently writing a doctoral thesis at the University of London on the intersection of politics, the media and the internet.

Sad geek warning: did you know Estonia (or E-stonia as my Baltic brethren like to brand it) was among the first to experiment with net voting. Well, I thought it was interesting anyway.

To blog or not to blog....

It's pretty self-evident what I think the answer to that question is. And if you are a student journalist what better way of presenting your work, maximising your profile and reaching out to prospective employers? Why not harness the net in practical terms with an online CV? You can always take part in the philosophical debate on the power of blogs at Cemp - Bournemouth's Centre for Excellence in Media Practice where Roman Gerodimos poses the question: Blogs - online therapy or new power structure?
For a different slant read Trevor Butterworth's piece in the FT Magazine. "Blogging is the closest literary culture has come to instant obsolescence," he argues.

Convergence Week - if you're happy and you know it clap your hands

It was Convergence Week at BMS last week which explains why everyone looked so stressed out. If you just mention the c-word to some journalists it sends them into a spasm in much the same way 'multi-media' used to. I think it is mainly the thought of having to do EVERYTHING. Or perhaps they don't really know what it means. "I am not a knob twiddler. I am a human being!" That sort of thing. A basic definition is: the technology driven unification of different media channels. But convergence is a buzzword that has been distended to also mean everything from corporate strategies to technological developments to job descriptions.

Sad geek warning: the subject came up over lunch with Chindu Sreedharan (at BU polishing up his PHd on the role of the media in conflict situations, with special focus on Kashmir). He doesn't mince his words in a piece for the Poynter Institute where he quotes Rich Gordon, journalism professor at Northwestern University. "No longer can journalists assume that just because they work in one medium (say, a print newspaper), they don't need to worry about how their story should be presented in another (on television or the Web) ... On the other hand, we are not necessarily moving into an era when a single journalist needs to do it all ... There will always be a need for specialists who do one thing particularly well."

Something tells me I'll be coming back to this one. I'm interested in your views so tell me what you think.

My name is url

February 14 - and yes, it can be revealed, I love the internet. What else would you expect the champion of all things online at Bournemouth Media School to say?! But before I go all Mariah Carey on you and start talking about kittens and what I had for breakfast (there are 27m other blogs out there where you can get that stuff) I need to tell you something - and it's not very romantic.

You see, there are four of us in this relationship - print, TV, radio, online. Call it convergence, the integrated newsroom or multi-media (whatever rings your bell). It doesn't matter what your orientation is, bi-, tri- or Channel 5, or if your first love is print or the net. If you want a job in journalism (and that is the first question all students ask me) get with the programme, or at least on to a decent course - shameless plug for BA and MA courses at Bournemouth Media School. And whatever you do, don't refer to a past lover as 'dead wood', it's not very nice and might cut your chances of future employment.

My blog promise: keep everyone up to date with what I am teaching and learning at BMS, links to the online journalism debate and links to good journalism both within and without (if you detect an FT bias, I'm allowed, I work there and it's only fair since the editor allowed me to go off desk to do this gig). I also want to hear what you think - so post at will. And send me your urls - I want to read your stuff. If you are a bit old media and don't know how to do this - please see me! Or else e-mail me at lrohumaa@bournemouth.ac.uk and then I can hunt you down...

In the meantime, and since it is St Valentine's Day, allow me a Mariah moment.