Guess what? A debate about the future of newspapers!

A bit late, I know – but have just had a read of the posts on the Britannica Blog’s: Are Newspapers Doomed? forum. Impossible to read without this from the Onion in mind (thank you SeumasSeamus).

My thoughts? Nicholas Carr’s points about unbundling are on the money (familiar if you have read Blown To Bits). But, the debate is now pretty much meaningless. We’re on a journey. We can’t go back. We can’t stop. We can’t see the end yet. So we might as well carry on, enjoy the view, and make the most of it.

The name trade

A propos of absolutely nothing – other than perhaps demonstrating a certain uniformity in online marketing strategies – interesting to see how much money is being chucked at ‘names in the news’ text advertising – with the Independent, Sky and Mirror leading the way.

I’m sure someone smart could do the analysis of the cost per click on each name to come up with a new Celebdaq.

Everyone is all over Mark Speight.

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Kerry Katona is also quite popular, even though she hasn’t done so much recently.

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Jordan – although she’s part celeb, part holiday destination.

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Gordon Brown only has the independent bidding for him.

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While David Cameron has the Indy  and Sky – with Sky managing to squeeze a typo into their ad.

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Shannon Matthews – very big for the london paper, for some reason..

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