Time On My Side --- Michael Hedges July 31, 2008 Maybe it escaped your notice but Mick Jagger just turned 65. Two days later the Rolling Stones ditched label EMI for Universal. Jagger has made no other comment on becoming eligible for a free bus pass in the UK. EMI said they were sad. Universal said they were glad. |
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The millstone around Russia --- Michael Hedges June 23, 2008 Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan – all on Russia’s edge – are pushing media repression to new lows. With all broadcasting and most print media firmly under State control, the Web is the current target. Dictators on Russia’s borders perplex even Russian media. |
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Media War 2.0 --- Michael Hedges May 14, 2008 The Hezbollah faction fought its way across Lebanon’s capital Beirut with more death and destruction in its wake. One target was the pro-government media center Future TV, now in ruins. The militias now control through force of arms much of what moves. And its own media empire is spreading the news. |
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BBC Albanian Service Launches Morning Radio Program --- Michael Hedges November 1, 2005 News and current affairs program BBC Sot, meaning BBC Today, airs 0700-0900 CET, Monday through Friday on the BBC’s Tirana station 103.9 FM and several affiliates across the country. The program format contains regional and international news bulletins each 15 minutes and features on business, sports and culture. Listeners can participate in live in-studio debates via SMS messaging, telephone and email. |
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Brand BBC and Brand Fragility --- Michael Hedges April 27, 2004 The volumes written and hours spoken about the BBC in the last two years could fill a 40 GB hard-drive, libraries being so very ten minutes ago. When Lord Hutton blew super-heated air into a pyre of smoldering quarrels, every critic and defender circled round, wailing and throwing either oil or sand. It wasn’t a pretty sight, through those weeks, particularly for those burned. A flame or two occasionally shoots up as fans, foes and former employees deliver speeches and write books keeping warm the notion that the Culture Minister will arrive in two years time with more fuel. |
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Can BP Save Its Brand? --- Philip M. Stone June 23, 2010 Follow on Twitter Believe it or not BP still has supporters. It’s a tier 1 (biggest) sponsor for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games and that’s worth some £40 million ($60 million) to the organizers which is why their chairman has publicly stated again that BP is a “trusted partner”. The big question, of course, is what will remain of BP by the time of those Games. |
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For Publishers Status Means More Than Yachts --- Michael Hedges May 20, 2020 Follow on Twitter Once upon a time, and not that long ago, business models were a dime a dozen, as they say. And every one was fed by the same 'we'll sell advertising' theme. Those days have been drifting into foggy memory for a decade, resigned to history by recession of 2020. Only the publishing hard-bitten still argue that, with a few giant exceptions, the news business will remain a for-profit business. Others are moving on. |
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In The Digital Age There Is No Zero-sum Game --- Michael Hedges July 13, 2015 Follow on Twitter From the earliest days of broadcasting listeners - and later viewers - in many countries contributed to transmitter and program costs through a tax levy on receiving equipment. Over time public broadcasting emerged in Europe and elsewhere from state operated systems. The household license fee formed, in part, the financial basis for independence from political and commercial influence. Several public broadcasters were able to leverage brand strength from this independence. Neither politicians nor competitors have been pleased. |
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