currybetdotnet Evening Standard archive
Whatever Paul Waugh thinks, The Guardian's MPs Expenses crowd-sourcing experiment was no "total failure"
In describing The Guardian's MPs Expenses crowd-sourcing experiment as a "total failure", the Evening Standard's Paul Waugh gives us a glimpse of one of the reasons the traditional media industry finds it hard to innovate with technology.
Evening Standard's Richard Godwin can't stand IT - even for fact-checking NASA's "space pen"
Richard Godwin's argument that schools should use pencils rather than the latest technology would be a lot more convincing if he didn't back it up with the tired old urban myth about NASA's "Space Pen".
Evening Standard fails African Cup Of Nations geography test
Whilst the Evening Standard gets confused about whether the African Cup Of Nations is being held in Angola or Ghana, The Guardian is making available an open public sporting events calendar which knows for sure.
Mail homepage goes indigo - well, 'Indigo Collection' anyway
When I first saw this homepage advertising campaign last week from Marks & Spencers on the Daily Mail website, my initial reaction was to tweet that it had burned my eyes. Aesthetics aside, I did think it merited further mention. It is very interesting to see a British newspaper experimenting with advertising formats like this. For the Daily Mail's online audience it seemed likely to be totally 'on brand', perhaps much more so than the Evening Standard giving pages 2...
The (sometimes) free London Evening Standard
Last night I went to a fascinating round table panel session put on by MTM London at One Alfred Place with the title 'Do online newspapers have a future in a Digital Britain'. The evening was under Chatham House Rules, which means I need to work a little bit harder on how I'm going to blog about the event itself. Whilst I'm wrestling with that conundrum, I was struck by something on the way home that seemed to sum up...
Evening Standard using Muslim anger to sell newspapers in Walthamstow
In the West End on Friday Evening Standard billboards were leading on the Heather Mills divorce saga. In Walthamstow it was a different story. The fact that Jack Lefley's "Community leaders blame foreign policy for anger" article was only ~250 words long, and was buried on page 10 of the paper, didn't stop the Evening Standard using it as their main sales thrust in E17....
Do boys even take A-Levels these days?
Time for my annual A-Level joust with the British media. There was a shot across the bows last week, but over the last couple of days I've been keeping a watchful eye on the way the press portrays the results process. Across print and the web it was pretty much the same old, same old - lots of pictures of very successful girls, and not a hint that boys can achieve academic success. The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily...
It must be nearly A-Level time again
As luck would have it I am back in the UK for one of my favourite British events of the year - the mainstream media A-Level results frenzy. Or as I've come to think of it - a load of journalists who haven't had to sit an academic exam for years denigrating the hard efforts of a load of children who are emotionally at the age where they are probably least equipped to deal with failure in front of their...
Searching 'This Is London' from The Evening Standard
I've recently been doing a survey of how well search works, or doesn't, across a number of British newspaper web sites. I've already looked at a couple of News International Titles - The Times and The Sun - and one of Associated New Media's properties - The Daily Mail. Today I'm going to look at another Associated New Media site, This Is London, the online presence of the Evening Standard. Although the Evening Standard is not a national newspaper I...
Konnie Huq's briefs in the Daily Brief
Every day at the BBC subscribers can get an email called the 'Daily Brief'. It is a great little source of information, with a simple premise of providing a snapshot of useful information about the business to any area that is likely to have to be reactive. I get it because it is useful for the homepage team. It normally carries details of any known schedule changes from the major network, or details of which shows may be moved or...
The Evening Standard's Vanishing Booze Vote
For a long time one of the things that has really bugged me about living in London is England's archaic licensing laws, that mean that after watching a film on a Sunday night the missus and I can't retire to the pub next door to discuss the finer details of the plot over a pint, in case we are too hung-over to work in the munitions factory the next day. In fact I'd go as far as to say it...
London Transport Fare Rises
Yesterday marked one of my annual blog rituals, when the Evening Standard spins the announcement of fare rises on London's transport system into a story of economic doom'n'gloom that even the pessimistic Daily Express would be envious of. (I'd apologise for repeating myself, but due to the great currybetdotnet server disaster of 2005 none of the earlier posts are currently online.) Today the Standard screamed: KEN'S HUGE FARE RISE Usually the trick on these occasions is to use the percentage...
It's Not The Disability That Is The Problem, It's The Sex
The temporary statue of Alison Lapper in Trafalgar Square has generated plenty of comment, but this item in the Londoner's Diary in tonight's Evening Standard particularly caught my eye - "Monumental Row". It quotes David Whiting who felt his war-hero stepfather should be on display in the square as saying: I have nothing against Alison Lapper and certainly nothing against disabled people However he goes on to say: That a naked woman should be filling the empty plinth in Trafalgar...
England Soccer World Cup Bid
Soccer World Cup Bid? Soccer??? Has the Evening Standard transformed itself into the local paper for London, Texas?...
"Citizen Journalist" Photo On The Standard's Front Page
I'm quick enough to criticise the Evening Standard when I disagree with it, but I thought for a bit of balance I ought to give praise when it is due. The Standard yesterday did a great job in getting Wasim Maqsood's photographs of an incident on the Central Line onto the front page so quickly. The article goes on to use Maqsood as the main source: Mr Maqsood, a photographer, who took pictures as the police arrived, said he had...
Someone Gets Their Point Of View In Print
I posted yesterday about BBC News using comments from the Points of View messageboard in an article. Well this evening The London Evening Standard picked up the story and used one of the same quotes in an article on page 3. BBC brought to heel over 'sexist' show The BBC has apologised over the programme Bring Your Husband To Heel after complaints it was sexist towards men. The BBC 2 show featured dog trainer Annie Clayton teaching women how to...
Now In Our Time shows the BBC is "ignorant as well as biased"
The In Our Time Greatest Philosopher vote gained more press coverage on Monday, with an article in Peter Oborne's column for the Evening Standard entitled "Marx is so overrated": Long-term students of the BBC will not have been surprised to learn that Karl Marx looks set to be voted the world's greatest philosopher by Radio Four listeners. The decision shows the BBC is ignorant as well as biased. Marx was not a philosopher, he was a journalist with a deep...
Evening Standard Reconsiders Gipsy Camp Pun?
Both the Evening Standard and the Standard Lite contained a feature today by fashion editor Laura Craik about skirts. Not being a fashionista the thing that caught my eye was the difference in the editorial treatment. The later edition has clearly benefitted from a re-write, but what was most noticeable was the alternative headlines. The Evening Standard went for a quite sober: Girls will wear swirls this summer The gipsy skirt is the surprise smash hit of the season -...
Listening to iPods can make you deaf
A wonderfully sensationalist front page splash from the Standard today to point out what man has known since the invention of the headphones, that listening to music loudly for a long time damages your hearing. It wasn't quite clear from the article what was so product specific about this type of hearing damage to warrant billboards proclaiming "IPOD HEALTH ALERT". Maybe the Standard knows that the AAC compression recommended by Apple emits additional ear-destroying sonic frequencies which other mp3...
A warped sense of loyalty
Tonight's Evening Standard printed a letter from a London Assembly Member, Labour's Cllr Murad Qureshi: I see that French Arsenal and Chelsea players have aligned themselves with the Paris bid to host the 2012 Olympics I would have thought Londoners who pay £40 a match to watch footballers who are paid £20,000 a week would expect a little more loyalty. Hmm, I wonder what the public reaction would be if a certain David Beckham and Michael Owen showed the kind...
The Queen's Speech announces the introduction of ID Cards from 2008
The worst train stations in London
Congestion Charge expansion in West London
The reporting of Internet polls during elections
Lazy Evening Standard Internet journalism (Number #36 in a seemingly never-ending series)
Congestion Charging Expansion consultation
The truth about Becks and her and The Evening Standard
A positive Internet story? Gmail cometh
The London Standard, David Beckham and the Madrid Bomber
Congestion Charging one year on: "The sky did not fall on London's head"
'New Fines War On Bus Lane Drivers' cries Evening Standard
Five Live Sporting Century vote in the Evening Standard
London Congestion Charge: "Thousands are fined by mistake" claims Evening Standard
Contact the Evening Standard about the London Congestion Charge
London Evening Standard reaction to Congestion Charging - a prediction
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Day of the Triffids
If everyone suddenly went blind, how long would the Internet survive, and could you still publish news on it?
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