Blurred Keys

UPDATE BELOW: A new Irish blog has launched, it appears to be in the style of the infamous NYC-based Irish blog Blogorrah.

The Chancer, with an address thechancer.ie, started publishing late last weeks.

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An Irish beauty blog says it has up to 6,000 unique visitors, and over 150,000 hits a day, just one year after starting.

Beaut.ie run by sisters Kirstie and Aphrodite, has close to 2,000 posts on topics such as facials, lipgloss, waxing, and latest beauty trends.

Just one year old, the winners of best newcomer and best design at last year’s Irish Blog Awards are said to have ‘well over’ 50,000 comments.

(Vie mulley.net)

While not trying to
get too caught up in the controversy over a blogger code of conduct, an open forum
in Dublin tomorrow (Monday) night will look at the question ‘do the same standards
apply to journalists and bloggers?’.

Everybody is welcome,
and the event is reasonably informal, for more information see our previous post
on the forum.

Blurred Keys takes the view that both groupings are more alike
then they would generally like to admit.

‘Do the same standards of professional integrity apply with bloggers and traditional media?’ will be the question of the next Cleraun Media Forum on Monday, April 23, at 8-pm.

The organises are openly inviting bloggers, journalists, students, lecturers, or anybody interested in the media. The open forum will be moderated by Sunday Tribune business editor & columnist Richard Delevan.

The topic is a spin-off from a session given by Sunday Times Columnist and blogger Sarah Carey, at the Cleraun Media Conference last October. Her paper ‘Blog etiquette’ is now available at cleraun.com.

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A more up-to-date list is now here.

Since the original post was published the number of links we have to Irish
journalists’ blogs has massively expanded – mostly thanks to reader’s
comments on the last post.

Again, this is by no means a complete list. You can post additions,
corrections, comments, and, as always, abuse below. (You can comment
here without entering an email address, or name).

Adam Maguire, freelancer
Adrian Weckler, tech journalist / editor, S. Business Post
Dave Forsythe, Deputy Editor, Cork Independent
Declan Cashin, subeditor the Star; col. Irish Independent
Fergus Cassidy, freelancer
Gavin Sheridan, freelance sub-editor, Irish Examiner
Harry McGee, political editor, Irish Examiner
Haydn Shaughnessy tech journalist, the Irish Times
John Maguire, film critic, Irish Independent
John Reynolds, freelancer
John Naughton, (UK-based) columnist, the Observer
John Collins, tech journalist, the Irish Times
Karlin Lillington, tech journalist, the Irish Times
Kevin Rafter, assistant editor/political editor, Sunday Tribune
Kathy Foley freelancer, & columnist, the Sunday Times
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Andersonstown News Group
Ronan Fitzgerald, freelance journalist (the Guardian, Pitchfork)
Ruairi Roddy, technology officer, Thomas Crosbie Holdings
Ronan Price, Editor, Herald AM; tech col., Evening Herald 
Richard Delevan, business editor and col., Sunday Tribune
Sinead Gleeson, arts journalist, the Irish Times
Sarah Carey columnist the Sunday Times
Tom Griffin, (UK-based)
Una Mullally, journalist, Sunday Tribune

The Dublin office of PR giant Edelman has just launched a blog at edelmandublin.com/blog.

It’s currently at the early stages (while browsing, we even noticed expanding sidebar links), and that the content will be media focused.

“It’ll typically consist of media news, stories and trends which grab our interest and contributions from various members of staff such as the piece on the site from Seamus Mulconry, our head of PA” commented Piaras Kelly, at Edelman Dublin.

Edelman’s clients in Ireland include Diageo, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Sustainable Energy Ireland, Forfas and bmi.

Recently, on his personally blog, Kelly posted analyses of the Edelman Trust Barometer from Ireland. The results show that the media is the third lowest trusted sector, just above the banking and insurance industries. 

- Blogorrah, now a cultural icon
- Advertising started 
- Political blog in the works
- Irish sports blog restated

Blogorrah is now online Irish cultural icon spending its time slating Irish politicians, models, actors, and media. Although it is New York-based, Blogorrah has featured in Irish national newspaper and radio and has won the harts and minds of many Irish bloggers, and is pretty proud that the Sunday Independent called them "Frankly disgusting".

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Village.ie the online presence of Vincent Browne’s Village magazine is set to re-launch later today. Premium subscribers will have access to the “best from Magill magazine 1977-1998”.

This week’s edition of Village promotes the new site on the cover, but at the time of publication of this article (1am) there was no sign of the new site going public.

The new Village.ie, which will be branded ‘Ireland’s Current Affairs Website’, has a focus on paid subscriptions, although it is understood that as well as other content such blogs magazine content will still be free a week after publication as it is now.

A test version of the site seen by Blurred Keys still needs some polishing, however, the design features correspond with the lay out of some of the best newspaper or magazine sites. It’s a marked improvement from Villages’ old online presence.

A page on the test site lists free content as daily news and commentary, blogs on politics and media, an Election 2007 section, and daily news updates. 

Future plains on the same page are listed as podcasts of interviews, transcripts of interviews, and extended blogging facilities.

Pricing according the test site is €59 for 12 months premium access, and print edition subscriptions will also include full website access. PayPal is being used as for payment.

Google has apparently removed a search listing pointing to a blogger’s complaint that the Thinkhouse PR were “repeatedly” spamming him.

In their ‘Media and Marketing’ section, the Sunday Tribune yesterday published a story on the Dublin-based Thinkhouse PR moving into an office in “virtual Dublin” in the online computer game Second Life; but good press doesn’t last if you spam the wrong person.

Damien Mulley author of Irish blog mulley.net, and chairman of the voluntary pressure group IrelandOffline, was sent unsolicited email multiple times, even after a number of removal requests.

Mulley originally posted an open letter to the Data Protection Commissioner on August 23, but controversy only arose today after he realised his post has apparently being black listed from a Google search index of ‘Thinkhouse PR’.

According to Mulley his first post had taken third position on the ‘Thinkhouse PR’ search, a post linking to his from Irish blog tomrafteryit.net has since taken the position.

Today – after realising the Google removal – Mulley asked bloggers to repost his open letter. So-far taking up the challenge or linking are tomrafteryit.net, damienblake.com, adammaguire.com, lexferenda.com, stalltheball.com, ocaoimh.ie, eirepreneur.blogs.com, irish.typepad.com, twentymajor.blogspot.com, dossing.blogspot.com, and blog.rsynnott.com.

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So, we were right, the Irish "culture, media news, gossip - and whatever you’re having yourself" blog, Blogorrah.com, is trying to copy Gawker.com (ok, so it wouldn’t take a intellect to guess such).

More importantly, they’re trying to copy Gawker Media, reports the Sunday Times (vie Blogorrah.com). From VIP magazine to dog mag publisher, John Ryan, told the Times “The beauty of it is that there are very few overheads”.

And we do mean copy, well in the inspired way, the design is more then just similar to Gawker.com. The design is copied; the method of news aggregation with witty comments is copied.

Even thought they take the piss with them, Blogorrah.com is obsessed with photo call shots of Irish models in and around St Stephen’s Green, and then there are ‘celebrity’ and socialite photographs. Now where did they copy that from? A bit of Gawker, a bit of Defamer, or just VIP magazine?

We’ll keep reading and viewing, if only there was more reading then viewing to do. Just go easy on McDowell, he’s a bit stressed out at the moment.

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