links for 2009-01-25

Classic. A gramophone player built into a watch-case.

"The BBC would have to reveal the salaries of its key stars such as Jonathan Ross if the Tories win the next election". With there being no small irony that this suggestion comes from the people who have just been trying to hide their expenses...?

"Sun Online also benefited in December from increased aggregation from sites like digg.com and delicious.com, he said. 'It was a formula of good content, then us seeding that well to get pick up,' Picton added". Not many newspaper people are that open about their social marketing strategies

"PDF products are beloved solely by printie publishers and editors who think readers want to read the news in a print-like layout, and don't understand that a) electronic delivery is a completely different format than print and b) readers really don't want to have to print out their own magazine or newspaper."

"Being judged by people on the performance of Murdoch and Dacre is like all Transylvanians being judged on Dracula's behaviour."

"The BBC and (initially) the other broadcasters may well have made the wrong decision, but it was neither an inexplicable nor an outrageous one, and a much closer call than most of their opponents are willing to accept. Cheap populist shots from government ministers ring particularly hollow when set against New Labour's long record of bullying and suborning the BBC, or the Beeb's own record of craven subservience to the government's agenda. It is particularly strange that ministers' ire should be directed against a broadcaster that weighed a tricky situation rather than against the country that did the damage."