birmingham

Today’s Digital Consultant Links for October 19th

These are my links for October 19th from 09:20 to 15:28:

Just 11% of Brits pay for online content – Bad news for online content makers/publishers: only 1 in 10 Brits is paying for any online media (including music), a trend that has worsened from the recession, with users seeking out free online content to replace spend on traditional media (e.g. magazines). But without online advertising increases, this is a vicious cycle – how long can producers sustain the free lunch?
Music Week – Pirate Party founder meets fiery reception – Wow, looks like there was some hot discussion going on at the In The City music convention in Manchester this week. The attitude from the music creators against the libertarian Pirate Party (anti copyright campaigners) suitably extreme: “You talked about the middle ages but if this were the middle ages I would burn you at the stake.” Touche.
Digital marketing in the Midlands: have we got what it takes to become a leading part of the sector? – Very interesting commentary by Clarity Marketing on whether the Midlands (in this instance essentially talking about Birmingham) has the right structure, investment and advocacy to be a leader in digital media. The discussion on the strengths of Birmingham's social media activities and how that relates, or not, to commercial agency activity is very interesting.

These are my links for September 16th from 10:43 to 16:13:

Which UK city is the most creative? Nottingham? – Matt Davies from Attitude Design on why Nottingham's is a burgeoning city for creative and media with a bit of help from, and a name check for, our new site CreativeNottingham.com (launching Sept 21).
EM Media receives £500K funding – Hoorah, at last some new funding for my home region for screen sector in East Midlands. WIll be keen to see what their plans are for it and if it's an extension of previous fund which were more big pots of cash into film and games production. Let's hope there's some skills benefits and smaller, more innovative investments attached.
New Bham Council website "an expensive disaster" – Ross Reily comments on the £2.7 million Birmingham Council website which lacks quality design, functionality, security and move forward little in online services or e-democracy (and no RSS either) which ultimately means the citizens of Birmingham are missing out. Managed by Capita.