Monday 3rd July: Michelle Manafy on the media's universal problems

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Big Noises: Michelle Manafy on the media's universal problems

On this week’s episode of Big Noises from Media Voices we welcome back friend of the podcast Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director at the trade organisation for premium publishers Digital Content Next (DCN).

Michelle started out as a journalist. The rise of digital media saw her embrace the change and after working for a range of publications, from alt weeklies to B2B titles, she joined what was then the AOP to help premium publishers on their digital transition. She now manages online content and events for the group.

More than a decade in, Michelle still has hope for the media, but is frustrated by many of the publishing practices she sees. “Now we’re in a world where two thirds of our job is to rise above the noise. ‘Listen to me. Look at me’ right? Are we providing a value exchange? When people give us that gift of their attention, do we provide them with value… was it worth their time?

I’ve lost count of how many TWEXIT phases we’ve had since the first wave of leavers bailed on Elmo’s Bird app. His latest ‘dumb-as-a-rock’ move to throttle access has sparked yet another exodus, with the Muskrat blaming excessive data scraping for the newly imposed 600-tweet limit. More likely, it’s a cack-handed attempt to get people to pay, or maybe its unpaid Google bills or self-inflicted DOS attacks. Whatever the real reason, another raft of users has had enough.

We hear about newspapers going out of print pretty regularly, but the news that Austria’s Wiener Zeitung is going online except for a monthly print edition deserves a mention. The paper was founded in August 1703, but suffered a revenue collapse following a change in requirements to print statutory business notices. Its final front page read: “320 years, 12 presidents, 10 emperors, 2 republics, 1 newspaper.” Not a bad record, really.

Hooray! The UK’s press regulator IPSO has ruled that The Sun newspaper must flag the adjudication against Jeremy Clarkson’s column about his “hate” for Meghan Markle on its front page. OK, it took them six months to adjudicate and the Sun has already apologised and taken down the story, but making them put the ruling on the front page (even if it was tiny) might just make them think twice about giving space to this kind of shite again.

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