Wardman Wire Magazine

I’m not going to cover the pre-Budget Report in detail (although somebody else on the team might do so).

Instead I’m noting what I think is a significant development in the BBC approach - that of linking out systematically to Political Blogs, which are not all particularly well-known bloggers, either. For the BBC, this approach can add interest in what is a long session. There are links to around a dozen bloggers.

Also, the links are direct links which pass Google-juice, a practice that had been noted as missing on the BBC website recently. This is crucial for blogs to gain exposure.

The things missing from here are Northern Irish and Scottish blogs, and a Lib Dem MP, but the Lib Dems had an extra blogger linked.

A couple of mistakes. Twitter links should be to the individual message, as should blog links - and they quoted a paragraph from Richard Kelly including an inaccuracy.

Overall - probably 7 out of 10 in my view for this Live Blog. Not bad at all. I’ve listed all the blog links below the fold.

For some time there has been conversation about the need to look at the Quality and Engagement of audiences for media websites.

This article looks at one of the data items available via the Quantcast.com service, which segments your audience by loyalty. The free service can also identify which organisations and businesses are sending visitors to a website.

I look at the data for national newspapers, and also for this site and journalism.co.uk.

The BBC Trust has rejected a proposal to spend £68m launching a local web-video service in 60 Cities across the country.

Good. This was a step too far, especially as Local News media is better placed to closely engage with with local people and has started using online video creatively in some places.

Feedback on Radio 4 carried a fairly balanced discussion about the Russell Brand / Bill Brewer / Peter Gurney / Andrew Sachs / Peter Davy / Jonathon Ross / Dan’l Whiddon / Daily Mail / Harry Hawke / Lesley Douglas / Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all / BBC / Jan Stewer scrummage.

The segment is quite long - 20 minutes, but it covers most of the different aspects and contains most viewpoints.

Click through on the title for the audio segment.

There’s been a lot of comment on the Russell Brand / Jonathon Ross Obscene / Prank phone call to Andrew Sachs farrago, such that I’m reluctant to add to the pile.

However … I have one or two things that may be useful, such as a spliced audio recording and some information about the growth of the resulting fuss.

In from Manchester via the BBC:

David Miliband has dismissed a BBC story that he was overheard saying he wanted to avoid a “Heseltine moment” in his conference speech as “hearsay”.

The foreign secretary, who has been at the centre of leadership rumours, said the BBC “should know better”.

He paid tribute to Mr Brown in his speech but aides were heard telling him it was being given “six out of ten”.

A BBC journalist heard him reply: “I couldn’t have gone any further. It would have been a Heseltine moment.”

The private comment, overheard in a lift, was an apparent reference to the Conservative former deputy PM Michael Heseltine, who challenged the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who was eventually succeeded by John Major.

Wearing my “oh no here we go again” hat, I’m not surprised. Bearing in mind just what this government and its Ministers do every day I know what I think.

Is the denial true? I’m the Queen of Sheba.

From Wardman’s English Dictionary:

Hearsay (as applied to David Milliband): He Heard him Say It

(PSST: It was Mrs Thatcher’s fault for reprogramming the lift in 1975).

Of course if it isn’t true, he can always “Gilligan” the BBC.

I probably missed this, but I can’t find a reference.

Why does Nick Robinson’s Newslog never have any comments in the first half of the month?

This applies to April, May, June and July this year.

Nick’s posts in the second half of each month get hundreds of comments, but none at all in the first half of the month.

What is going on?