Aug 2006
Why Googling is good for Google
OK, here's a case in which a new media company has completely misunderstood the planet on which it is based. Google (for it is they) want to stop people referring to 'googling' when they're just looking something up. They say it could be bad for their brand, according to the story you can reach through the link just there.

Hmm. That'll be why nobody's ever heard of Hoover, and people who think they have a Hoover very often have something made by someone else entirely but continue to project the Hoover name whenever they mention it. It's bad for branding in the same way that calling things the Rolls-Royce of their field is bad for the car company, getting them a mention even when their product is nowhere around.

Google apparently wants to stop this free. de facto marketing. Crazy.
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Media trainers and interviews
OK, it wasn't perfect. The Woman's Hour interview/debate is now on the web and you can listen to it very soon by clicking here. I've trained people to speak to journalists and told them they need to be fluent, calm and everything - and of course when it was me I noticed every umm and aah that went on the hour. But I think my points were made, intact. And Jenni Murray was a sympathetic interviewer.

Overall I rather enjoyed that.
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More radio
So I get a mail from the BBC picking my brains for a contact from a piece I wrote on work/life balance a while back for the Guardian. And I get chatting on the subject to the researcher, and we seem to get on OK. Then the producer calls...

...and what do you know, I'm on Woman's Hour tomorrow talking about self-employment and work/life balance issues. It's only for a few minutes but it's a paid radio gig on the BBC.

I'm quite disproportionately pleased about that. In fact I'm just very pleased, and if I can set up a link to the item through 'Listen Again' it'll be up here tomorrow. Anyone else needing any voice work done, you know where I am.
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Off with its head
The inevitable has happened - ITV has demanded the resignation of its chief executive, Charles Allen, or so the BBC says. For all I know he resigned to spend more time with his family.

The question will be where ITV goes from here, though. The ratings are in free-fall and so, I'm afraid, is the quality. Other than Corrie fans I find it hard to think of anyone who has a good word to say about much of its output. The question will not be whether they replace Allen with someone who can learn from his mistakes but whether a change in chief executive is going to be enough to turn the thing around.

As to who replaces him, one name not in the BBC's report but who's offered his services, albeit light-heartedly, is that nice Greg Dyke, late of the BBC. I wonder...
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