Blurred Keys

- IrishTimes.com online now

And further to our post on the Irish Times removal of most of their paywall, the Sunday Business Post has today an article on the relaunch. Maeve Donovan, managing director of the Times has an interisting — and maybe even an overly optimistic — view on online advertising…

‘‘I think, perhaps, the presence of what you might
call garage operators in this space has led to a view of online
advertising as being cheap,” Donovan said. ‘‘In fact, I think internet
ads should be at a premium - they’re highly accountable. And yes, I do
think that’s going to change.”

Donovan also mentions the Guardian’s success at attracting online US readers. The paywall at Ireland.com has stopped emulation of this until now. Read the full article here.  

Click on the above image of text from newspaper and magizine websites - the image should open in a pop-up window. Which is the most readable?

The first is from an award winning newspaper site. This paper has one of the lowest national relationships in print, but the most visited newspaper websites in the UK.

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You’d expect a good deal of Dublin news on the Evening Herald’s recently launched website. But very little city news little can be seen on the homepage at Hearld.ie.

When Blurred Keys tried the site today, the first viewable screen without scrolling down hadn’t a single Dublin story.

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‘Blogging: some ethical issues’ is to be the possibility controversy topic of the last Cleraun media forum before the autumn.

It takes place this Monday, May 19 at 8pm, and all are welcome.It’ll
be chaired by Tony Allwright, an engineer and occasional columnist with
the Irish Times, who blogs on international and national issues at www.tallrite.com/blog.htm.

Meanwhile, the 12th Cleraun Media Conference will take place on
Saturday and Sunday October 18 – 19, 2008. More details are due closer
to the event.

For more see cleraun.com.

Thomas Crosbie Holdings’ BreakingNews.ie was relaunched today, it’s the first attempt by an Irish national newspaper company to use embedded video and audio in the main section of their website.   

Irish blog, jazzbiscuit.com, has it just about spot on here…

After several years of stoically refusing to budge, BreakingNews.ie
gets a make over. The simplicity of the old site has been replaced with
a far more modern, but less scannable site. That was my favourite thing
about the old one, you could browse all the latest headlines in
seconds. You can still do that, but it takes a little longer. It
actually seems like you can still get the same old-school view, just by
viewing the site’s archives by day.

Still no bylines on the site! What is it about Irish media companies and online news? Why are there no bylines?

The TCH’s irishexaminer.com is also due to be relaunched later this year.

- Firm say they are not acting on any clients’ behalf
- Solicitors ask for the “name and address” of users
- Politics website transfers to US servers after claim

Frank Ward & Co, solicitors for Taoiseach and the Fianna Fail, have had comments removed from an Irish politics website after claiming them to be libellous to the firm.   

The offending posting on Politics.ie referred to the handling by Frank Ward & Co of their former client Grainne Carruth around the time she was giving submissions to the Mahon Tribunal. Carruth, who is Bertie Ahern’s former secretary, changed solicitors between different dealing she has had with the tribunal.

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The website of the Munster Express (pictured above) is one of the clean, clearest and easiest to navigate designs we’ve seen for a regional Irish newspaper. And like a grown number of UK counterparts, it’s built in the free Wordpress content management system.

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The long list for of the Irish Blog Awards‘ Best Blog from a Journalist has been apparently ‘leaked’ (also below the gap).

Meanwhile, Blurred Keys‘ list of Irish journalist who blog has expanded to just under 40.

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University Collage Cork is to hold
a journalism conference next month which will ask if newspapers are on
their last leg and in danger of being replaced by new media.

The event will include speakers from newspapers and new media.

MORE: The Ballyfermot Post

What do Gmail, Google Mail, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Economist, Reuters, Fox News, Sky News, TypePad, Wordpress, Al Jazeera, the BBC, RTE, the Irish Times, the Washington Post, the Irish Independent, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, and the South China Morning Post have in common?

With a quick look, they all use the standard text size – the correct size – for web pages with news, other articles, blog posts, and other text heavy pages.

Examples sites which use smaller text includes the Sunday Business Post, ENN.ie, and siliconrepublic.com –  the Sunday Tribune goes one further and uses a hardly readable size. (EDIT: To add to the list Village.ie wound be another site)

Some web designers may say smaller text looks good, you may even agree with them. So, you’re right and the listed names in the above first paragraph are wrong? Indeed.

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