How I hit the headlines on Siberian TV ~ BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35668596

On a recent trip to Siberia, the BBC Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, was pursued by a local journalist. The next thing he knew, he was featured on the TV news and criticised for showing a less than idyllic view of Russia

Novosibirsk

• Third most populous city in Russia after Moscow and St Petersburg, situated in south-western Siberia
• Population of 1,473,754 according to the 2010 Census
• Founded in 1893 at the future site of a Trans-Siberian railway bridge across the River Ob
• Summer temperatures can reach 30C while winter temperatures can fall to -30C

What It’s Really Like to Work in Hollywood* (*If you’re not a straight white man.)

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/24/arts/hollywood-diversity-inclusion.html?_r=0

The Oscars v the 21st century ~ FT

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/cec35190-db0f-11e5-a72f-1e7744c66818.html

A diversity crisis, online disruption, falling viewing figures — how a Hollywood institution lost its way

How to make a hit film ~ The Economist

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21693594-how-make-hit-film-silver-screen-playbook


IN 1983 William Goldman, a screenwriter, coined the famous saying that in Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything” when it comes to predicting which films will succeed at the box office. To find out how true that remains, we have analysed the performance of more than 2,000 films with a budget of more than $10m, released in America and Canada since 1995, to see which factors help make a movie a hit.

The film business - Fading stars

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21693591-hollywood-studios-can-no-longer-bank-pulling-power-famous-actors-fading-stars

The Economist explains: Apple & the FBI

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/02/economist-explains-17


http://www.economist.com/node/771049

Moneysupermarket's strutting man in hotpants tops 2015 complaints list

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/23/moneysupermarket-epic-strut-most-complained-about-ad-paddy-power

BBC - Russia TV re-runs Ukraine tactics in Syria

http://www.bbc.co.uk/monitoring/russia-tv-reruns-ukraine-tactics-in-syria


Russian TV's coverage of the conflict in Syria is coming increasingly to resemble its reporting in Ukraine, with its suppression of inconvenient information, its highlighting of fake atrocities and its use of history to demonize the enemy – in this case, Turkey.

What’s wrong with sports officials? Simon Kuper

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/cbfbfcae-d4fd-11e5-8887-98e7feb46f27.html?siteedition=uk

TV money especially changed sport. There was less money than there might have been, because TV executives tended to be cleverer than sports officials, but many officials felt entitled to trouser their share. After all, these men thought that they themselves embodied their sports

Propagandalands - Peter Pomerantsev in Granta

http://granta.com/propagandalands/

'I drive a Ford Focus Eco Boost': the first interview with the new Top Gear presenters

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/02/18/i-drive-a-ford-focus-eco-boost-the-first-interview-with-the-new/


The new presenters of BBC's Top Gear have given their first interviews to Top Gear Magazine. Chris Evans, Matt Le Blanc, Eddie Jordan, Sabine Schmitz, Rory Reid and Chris Harris answered questions about their love of cars and their hopes for the show's new series, which starts in May. The six presenters (seven including the mysterious Stig) replace James May, Richard Hammond and the notoriously outspoken Jeremy Clarkson. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/amazon/11800890/jeff-bezos-interview-amazon-prime-jeremy-clarkson.html

Papers without paper

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21693254-loss-making-independent-ditches-ink-banking-pixels-papers-without-paper


The most profitable bit of the company, the i, a millennial-oriented cheapsheet spun off from the Independent in 2010, is to be sold to the Johnston Press, a regional publisher, for £24m ($35m). Fifty or so Independent hacks are expected to move with it. The i’s success, establishing a circulation of more than 200,000, had put the Independent closer to breaking even. But its owners, a Russian KGB-man turned banker, Alexander Lebedev, and his son, Evgeny, came to see paid-for, general-interest daily print titles as a losing proposition. In the long run, such newspapers are “toast”, says Amol Rajan, the Independent’s editor.

Monopoly Ultimate Banking scraps cash with a tiny ATM that scans property cards

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/monopoly-ultimate-banking-scraps-cash-with-a-tiny-atm-that-scans-property-cards-a6877066.html

Monopoly made the move to speed up the game, which is famous for taking several hours if many players are involved. But it will also prevent cheaters from secretly stashing away fistfuls of notes to spring on other players.

The album is not dead—yet

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2016/02/music-industry


...musicians from all corners of the industry—mainstream, middle-tier, independent, up-and-coming—continue to create albums. They are artistic statements, and build a body of work that artists can not only be proud of, but build tours around. Spotify suggests that albums are still worth artists’ while on a fiscal level, even though they pay rights holders a seemingly measly sum of $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream. In 2013, they estimated that monthly royalties for a niche indie album were more than $3,000, $17,000 for a rock album, and $145,000 for a top-ten album. Global breakthrough albums could reap around $400,000.

The Independent years: ‘A lovely sort of chaos’

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/15/the-independent-30-years-newspaper-triumphs-disasters

Twitter - The firm’s returned boss has yet to turn it around

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21692858-firms-returned-boss-jack-dorsey-has-yet-turn-it-around-twitter-flatlines


...many users and advertisers do still value Twitter. It is one of the best ways to reach people who influence the public’s conversations about brands, says Laura Desmond of Publicis Groupe, a giant advertising firm. However, to expand its audience, Twitter is in the difficult position of needing to keep long-time users happy while it makes changes that will increase its appeal to new ones. Mr Dorsey’s changes so far include “moments”, a new function which offers users a selection of the day’s top stories; and giving more prominence to tweets that Twitter’s algorithm judges more relevant. But more radical steps will be needed.

Independent on Sunday editor bemoans people buying coffee over paper

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/13/independent-staff-culture-people-coffee-newspapers

“We have always found it terribly depressing that people will happily pay £3.70 for an appalling coffee from a takeout place and yet they won’t pay £1.60 or £2.20 on a Sunday for what is in effect a novel’s worth of terrific writing,” Markwell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/89b5b6f8-d59e-11e1-a5f3-00144feabdc0.html

Lunch with the FT: Alan Yentob

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/c0e910c4-d005-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377.html

The TV executive and presenter on the collapse of Kids Company, resigning his role at the BBC and how Orson Welles used to steal his dinner

The Independent newspaper confirms an end to print production

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/12153947/The-Independent-newspaper-confirms-an-end-to-print-production.html

The Lebedevs bought The Independent - founded 30 years ago - for a nominal £1 in 2010, when its losses were running at £22.6m.

Supermarkets face ban on 'special offers' that cost shoppers £1,000 a year

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/12151067/Supermarkets-face-ban-on-special-offers-that-cost-shoppers-1000-a-year.html

How Valley of the Dolls went from a reject to a 30-million best-seller

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/how-valley-of-the-dolls-went-from-a-reject-to-a-30-million-best/


Another factor in her favour was that she understood the power of television and made great efforts to appear on national and local stations during her PR tours. The former actress knew how to play the fame game. As the blurb on Valley of the Dolls proudly stated: "Miss Susann has been stabbed, strangled, and shot on every major dramatic show on the airwaves". She was a canny guest star, giving around 30 televised interviews a week. "No matter what an interviewer asks, I can work the conversation back to the book," she said.

How the Communist Party creates the world’s most-watched TV news show

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21690099-how-communist-party-creates-worlds-most-watched-tv-news-show-no-news-bad-news


A fraction of households had TV sets when Xinwen Lianbo started broadcasting. But as China entered the age of mass consumption a few years later, TV news became the perfect vehicle for the party to try to guide public opinion. Xinwen Lianbo’s ratings peaked in the mid-1990s, when 200m-250m tuned in. Now the audience is 130m-140m, though the fall is not as big a worry for the party as it might seem: in 2003 China Central Television launched a 24-hour news channel, giving viewers complete freedom to choose when to catch up with the latest propaganda. Xinwen Lianbo still has more viewers than any other TV news on Earth.

Super Bowl ads: the very best and the very worst

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/feb/07/super-bowl-ads-best-and-worst

From a mysterious Intuit ad to a Zack Ryder promoting Doritos, the Super Bowl ads this year were high-concept, often ridiculous, and packed with celebrities

Google’s parent company is riding high

http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21689995-worlds-largest-listed-company-has-earned-patience-investors-googles-parent-company

Lego’s plastic wheelchair guy is a seismic shift in a toy box

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/01/lego-wheelchair-toys-message-disabilities

The 5 impressive ways David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest predicted the future

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/the-5-impressive-ways-david-foster-wallaces-infinite-jest-predic/