Crikey

Channel Nine … deliberately ripping off Fox Sports advertisements? Two clips were put up on the TVTonight blog yesterday, one from Channel Nine advertising Twenty20 Cricket, the other from Fox Sports advertising the Superbowl:

While it is pretty clear the ads are clearly a little too similar for comfort — from the graphics to the drumkits and records — it was this comment from the “author” that makes for interesting reading:

I was shown the Superbowl clip and asked whether I could make something like that, I said ’sure’, and in just over a week, (with the help of a couple of mates) it was finished. I *thoroughly* enjoyed making it, even if it wasn’t an original idea, and the budget was big enough to fit on a shop-a-docket. (cricket tickets all ’round!) Unlike Fox who would’ve had teams of people roto’ing football players, designing storyboards and elements and a room full of compositors (with a budget big enough to fund the cure for cancer).

In some other ways, this was a bit of a test peice to test the waters and try something that looks nothing like anything the bosses have seen before. It worked, (they loved it!) and now we’ve earned the trust of the bean counters, we can try something a bit more out of the box next time.

 — Crikey reader Charles Goodsell

Sub-editorial cop out at the Sydney Morning Herald . A new low for churnalism and the globalisation of media today with this disclaimer from the SMH on a story about the Skycar sourced from AFP:

This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

 — Crikey reader Kirk Muddle

Alltop really do have all the top stories. Aggregation site Alltop blow their own trumpet with the RSS feed for The Evolving Newsroom. Check out second story from the top.

Scoopless in Seattle: P-I beat on own sad news. The only insult that can compound the injury of having your newspaper shot out from under you is to hear the news first from a competing television station. That’s what happened last week to the staff of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who learned from KING-TV that Hearst Corp. was planning to put the paper up for sale  — and would close it if no buyer were found. Because the odds of finding a buyer in the next 60 days are short, the announcement amounts to a death warrant for the 146-year-old publication. So, who leaked the story to KING? — Reflections of a Newsosaur

Every picture tells a story. Look at this photo (unfortunately a low-res screencap) for what’s currently right and wrong about journalism:

Screencap from Seattle P-I web site. Here’s my take. The two women in the foreground are doing the work of a newsroom, reporting news and publishing it. Immediately. Online. Unfortunately, it’s the news of the potential death of their news organization. Everyone else is focused on the man with his back to us, Hearst’s Steven Swartz who’s giving the news that the Seattle P-I is up for sale and will likely stop printing in 60 days. — Zero Percent Idle

The most expensive books of 2008. Ever wondered what the big spenders spend their money on? Imagine paying £10,000 for the book of your dreams? Harry Potter, Edward Lear, the Brothers Grimm and a bible from 1484 all found a place on AbeBooks’ top 10 most expensive sales of 2008. Discover why a collection of etchings went for more than £11,000 and what were our most expensive sales of science fiction, poetry and other genres. Fans of bookish memorabilia will also be interested to learn the selling price of George Bernard Shaw’s typewriter. — Abebooks

A pep talk for journalists. My fellow journalists, we are at what is indeed the largest crisis in our history. Newspapers have laid off thousands of workers. Advertising revenue is down and with the economy in ruins that’s unlikely to improve soon. Some newspapers have stopped publishing print editions several days a week or at all. Some journalists are doing new jobs at newspapers, just to keep a paycheck. And we fear  — at least I do. But we cannot freeze in fear like the proverbial deer in the headlights of an oncoming truck. For if we do, we are sure to die, just like that deer. We must fight the instinct that tells us to give up, to hide under a blanket and cry or do only the bare minimum because we’re doomed anyway. That, my friends, is the surest way to hasten our death. — Save the Media

Female reporter hacked to death. A female journalist who reported on women’s rights and spoke out against the dowry system in southern Nepal was killed by a group of attackers, an official said Monday. Uma Singh was attacked at her apartment Sunday night in Janakpur, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of the Nepalese capital Katmandu. She died from wounds after being hacked with sharp objects, government administrator Shambhu Koirala said. — AP via Editor and Publisher

Read all about it: newspapers are done for. The newspaper industry has been faltering badly under the pressure of new media for a few years. For much of the past decade, circulation for all papers has been declining at about 2% a year. The last year has been a test case of sorts. Newspapers had the story of a lifetime: an election campaign of historic interest, suspense, drama and personality. From Hil-lary to Barack, from John Edwards’s love child to Sarah Palin’s Down’s syndrome child, from John McCain’s wild lunges for relevance to the first black president, it was the kind of year in which circulation should have boomed. If you live for a story, this year was an embarrassment of riches. And yet the decline didn’t just continue. It accelerated. — Times Online

French government cracks down on Hamas TV. Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV announces it has begun broadcasting via a European communications satellite. Less than 24 hours later, its broadcasts were removed from the air shortly after the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center’s bulletin and as a result of the intervention of the French authorities. — Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC)