Pavandeep A2 Media Blog: November 2014

News and Digital Media Summary

1. The dizzying decline of Britain’s local newspapers: do you want the bad news, or the good news?
http://pavandeepa2unit3.blogspot.co.uk/

2. To keep its stars happy, youtube may let you pay to skip ads
http://pavandeepa2unit3.blogspot.co.uk/

3. Dropbox and Microsoft Team up, placing Office in the cloud
http://pavandeepa2unit3.blogspot.co.uk/

4. Man Jailed for Whatsapp 'Revenge Porn' after posting images of woman online
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5.Changing Channels: Cost of top pay bundles rises to £100 a month
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6.Media jobs website Gorkana sold to Cision in £200m deal
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New and Digital Media Stories

The dizzying decline of Britain’s local newspapers: do you want the bad news, or the good news?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-dizzying-decline-of-britains-local-newspapers-do-you-want-the-bad-news-or-the-good-news-9702684.html

- Sales are in freefall – down by an average of 13.5 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2014. The poor South Wales Argus fell by an eye-watering 33.2 per cent and the Doncaster Star sold barely 1,000 copies a day.

- Most impressively, the papers’ websites have built a collective audience of 16.4 million users a month.

- The Echo grew its web traffic to 2,159,267 in the first half of 2014, a rise of 78 per cent on the previous six months. It is also Britain’s best-performing local paper on Twitter, with 158,000 followers.

This article discusses how there has been a huge decline in the amount of newspaper sales, and also shows that user generated content is being believed more than what is shown on the news, therefore resulting in this loss. To be specific it is the reason for less jobs in journalism and other related roles.

In my opinion this is a very interesting article as it shows how users are having an impact on big industries, ie the news industry. As technology now allows everyone to make videos and take photos, therefore being able to send them via social network sites and similar ways, mean less people are reading the news, as they are able to access simpler things, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.

To keep its stars happy, youtube may let you pay to skip ads

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/keep-stars-happy-youtube-may-let-pay-skip-ads/

- YouTube’s valuation even independent of Google could be as much as $40 billion—nearly 75 percent higher than the value of Netflix.

This article is purely based upon how the audience are going to get sick and tired of seeing advertisements and are therefore looking at different ways in which as a business they could charge consumers for the use of it, However it does discuss the way in which they failed back in 2013, when they attempted to charge their consumers via 'Subscription'.

In my opinion this is a very interesting and informative article as it informs those who use youtube regurlarly, like me, what youtube may consider doing. This not only makes the consumers think twice about using it, but could also create a conflict in the future, as the net is becoming more and more like the TV, day by day.

Dropbox and Microsoft Team up, placing Office in the cloud

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/04/dropbox-microsoft-team-up-office-cloud

- Today, Dropbox has 300 million users, of whom 70% are international, and a ton of them use Dropbox to get work done.

-These people have uploaded something like 35bn Office files. Today, they get a great experience on the desktop, but what we're doing now is taking that experience to mobile and the web

This article is based on how both Microsoft and Dropbox are both partnering up. Both being very big online media institutions, they are both going to be integrating Microsoft Office into the cloud regardless of the fact that they already have their own service known as One Drive.

This article is interesting as it shows pure teamwork by the way two huge institutions are becoming one in order to create future success for themselves.

Man Jailed for Whatsapp 'Revenge Porn' after posting images of woman online

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/14/man-jailed-revenge-porn-whatsapp

The Facebook and WhatsApp applications on a mobile phone

This article is about a person named Luke King, who has been jailed for three months for being convicted of Whatsapp 'revenge porn'. After threatening and harrasing a victim without violence, King published intimate images of the woman on Whatsapp. This is known to be the first ever case on Whatsapp, which has become a huge threat for any other users.

In my opinion, this is a very interesting article. as it makes people like me who use whatsapp on a daily basis, more aware of the things that could happen to me or anyone else I know who uses Whatsapp. This allows me to discuss the topic with my peers and make sure they do not find themselves in the same trouble.

Changing Channels: Cost of top pay bundles rises to £100 a month

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/14/changing-channels-top-end-bundles-rise-to-100-pounds-a-month

- The new services, which offer shows any time and on any device, give consumers more viewing choice than ever before – but at a price. The top packages from Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, which include all the best shows and broadband bells and whistles, all now cost more than £1,000 a year.

- The most recent figures show that BT’s overall average revenue per user has grown 7% year on year to £404 a year. Sky’s has increased from £504 four years ago to £574, while Virgin’s is £588 a year – up 2% year on year.

-TV companies are “upselling”, so individuals are also buying more premium online services such as Netflix or better broadband.

This article is based upon the way in which viewers are going to have to start paying up to £100 a month in order to get their channels and packages with their internet and telephone. The reason behind the prices going up, is simply because of the cost of television itself going up and the fact that current competitors such as Netflix that stream similar services are increasing, therefore by setting higher prices, will allow them to step up.

Media jobs website Gorkana sold to Cision in £200m deal

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/22/media-jobs-gorkana-sold-cision-gtcr

- Cision, which is owned by US private equity firm GTCR, recently closed a $447m (£278m) deal to buy Vocus, creating a giant in the software for the PR sector

- Gorkana was bought by private equity group Exponent, which also owns BBC magazines publisher Immediate Media, in 2010 for about £25

- The company made adjusted earnings of about £15m-£16m in its most recent financial year and had been looking to sell for about £200m

This article is about a recruiting/employment PR company. It is based upon the fact that it has been sold to a competitor known as Cision and is a part of some sort of expansion strategy.

Similar to the Dropbox and Microsoft merging together story, this also shows great teamwork and is very interesting as it shows that they want to work hard together and create more and more success, which will enable them to expand and get more profit.

News and Digital Media Summary

Thursday 20 November 2014

News and Digital Media Summary

New and Digital Media Stories

News and Digital Media Summary