OPEN

Telegraph cleans up its web front page

The Daily Telegraph became the latest newspaper to unveil an online
re-think with its fresher, more elegant website redesign. The Telegraph
apparently responded to reader feedback that they would like fewer ads
on the website and it looks all the better for it.

The new-look front page also features links to the telegraph’s podcast and eleven – count ’em – bloggers.

AND now for something Daily Mail

Not wanting to be left behind the Daily Mail this week launched a new
media division. But before you think they’ve gone all dot-com on you
they kept a sense of reserve by choosing the less than flash  name Assoicated Northcliffe Digital for the venture.

AND – as so far no one has felt the need to refer to the Mail’s new
media arm – immediately rushed out to buy an online dating firm and a
company specialising in online classified advertising.

While AND doesn’t appear to have its own website just yet, the Daily
Mail’s own is not looking too bad these days*. It is one of the few
newspapers to get all social media on its front page and give readers a link to comment on each article from the outset. Reading through said comments isa bit like getting a double dose of Middle England zeitgeist – take a look at the story and then read Daily Mail readers piling in with with cries of "politicial correctness gone mad" and "damn those woolly liberals" and suchlike.

Bell’s blogs

Meanwhile, at woolly liberals’ favourite paper, the Guardian, Emily Bell, editor of the paper’s website, has admitted that she reads blogs more than newspapers.

Her favourites are Paidcontent.org, Ofcomwatch, BoingBoing, Pvrblog, BuzzMachine, Gawker, the Huffington Post and Crooked Timber. She also says that she visits blog search engine Technorati most often.

Like uber-early-adopter Charles Arthur, editor of the Guardian’s
Technology supplement, Ms Bell shows the way that an increasing number
of journalists are getting their information and inspiration for
stories from the blogosphere.

If that isn’t enough to make using a blog reader like Bloglines as compulsory for PR people as reading the newspapers every day, I don’t
know what is.

Don’t sue the messenger

Calling a lawyer when you don’t like what someone says one a blog could
harm your reputation, if events on Madison Avenue over the past few
weeks are any guide.

A New York advertising agency sued a web designer over comments on his
blog about what he thought were poor online strategies for a campaign
to attract tourism to the state of Maine.

The action prompted thousands of words in blogs and industry media
examining the case, which was portrayed variously as Goliath trying to
give David a good kicking before he got off another of those pesky
stones or worse a marketing agency that was tragically behind the times
and unable to rely on its own communications nous to deal with the
situation. Eventually the firm saw sense and dropped the case.

Common sense and a modicum of experience of social media would lead
most consultants to advise that the last thing you want to be doing is
suing bloggers unless there really is no other alternative.

Mind you, someone managed to take down the infamous Spin Bunny with
some heavy legal threats. Perhaps the agency that pulled that one off
would like to share its approach with the rest of us as best practice.
Anyone? Anyone? I guess not.

* UPDATE: when I said the Daily Mail website was looking pretty good I hadn’t dug far enough to see that not only is a subscription required for some articles (not so good for Web 2.0-ness) but that you need to cough up "as little as £2 a week" to read its columnists. I’dbe sceptical, if I hadn’t read the comments sections and seen how much online readers enjoy the content…