Yesterday was the Day of the Holy Innocents, so named because of the order by King Herod to slaughter all children in Bethlehem under the age of two in the hope that the cull might include the newborn king of the Jews that the Three Wise Men were looking for, Herod having sent them in the direction of Bethlehem with the request to let him know when they found this new king. But of course, the Three Wise Men bumped into an angel who recommended that they kept mum, which they did, while mum herself was busy swaddling the baby king and stashing him away in an ox stall - as you do.
It is highly unlikely that this slaughter occurred, but Matthew knew a thing or two about anti-Roman propaganda and about portraying Herod as an infanticidal lunatic (which, in any event, he was). Had there been a "Bethlehem Times" back then, a front-page story on 28 December announcing the slaughter of the innocents would probably have been taken at its face value. But little might the readers have known that they could have been victims of a hoax story. 28 December, abbreviated to the Day of the Innocents, is the day when people innocently fall victim to pranks, and it is a day which has pagan roots.
The Holy Land might not have had its day of the fools, but Spain has had it for an awfully long time. It is said to date from the Middle Ages, though as it has a pagan background, it is quite possible that this "fiesta de los locos" is considerably older. As with many a pagan carry-on, it involved healthy doses of debauchery. Anything went. The church, none too impressed by this old-time behaviour in a vaguely Magalluf style, decided to graft the fiesta of the fools onto the Day of the Innocents, believing that memories of the alleged infanticide would calm everyone down.
Whether they did all calm down isn't a matter of record, though at some point in time they must have done and so gradually the Day of the Innocents became less eccentric and less extreme. It became what it now is - a day for the prankster akin to April Fools' Day.
The British media love April fools. The most celebrated spoof was that of 1 April 1977 when "The Guardian" produced its travel supplement for the tropical island republic of San Serriffe, a joke that the British press has spent the last thirty-seven years trying to emulate. The San Serriffe joke was only possible because back then it was just about plausible that there was a tropical island republic no one had heard of. The spoof has, therefore, to have an element of believability. In my own small way, I once did an April fool about drilling for oil in the bay of Alcúdia. The exploration company was called Tonto S.A. (which was the giveaway), but this was at a time before there was any talk of oil prospecting in Balearic waters. It was, as things have turned out, somewhat prophetic. When I wrote a story about the Chinese buying Cala San Vicente, "The Bulletin" put a note in the next issue which pointed out that it had been an April fool.
Believability is crucial, and this brings me to the front page of Sunday's "Ultima Hora". The Spanish media have typically not gone in for spoofs on the Day of the Innocents, but occasionally they do. Or do they? "An increase in homemade porn videos set in Mallorca detected." The story said that the emergency services had received complaints over the summer about couples and groups having sex in coastal areas and that the majority of homemade porn videos going on the internet with "Mallorca" in the title were German. "Inocentada!", laughed social media - "jajaja" - though it wasn't a story which played for the laughs, except to suggest that Portals was a place where residents had been complaining of "scandalous sexual activities". (Well, I found it funny that Portals should have been singled out.)
It was a story which was believable. In fact, it was too believable. I can recall a few years ago there having been reports in the local press (not on the Day of the Innocents) about porn films being shot (by Germans) in quiet parts of the island's coast. There is, furthermore, anecdotal evidence of professional porn-making if not the homemade variety, though I daresay that there are anecdotes regarding this as well.
Very believable it was and very much in keeping with the pagan tradition of the feast of the fools when debauchery was the order of the day. I'd like to think the paper had that in mind, though I suspect not, while I'm also rather inclined to think that the spoof had been a double bluff and was true all along. It was simply too believable.
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Monday, December 29, 2014
Friday, August 02, 2013
The Stench Of Unaccountability
What should have been expected? That Mariano Rajoy would appear in sackcloth, prostrate himself in front of the Spanish parliament, admit to all the sins of which he had been accused and beg for mercy? Or, in less tragic manner, would have treated the whole affair with lighthearted comedy? " 'El Mundo' got me bang to rights. It's a fair cop but Spanish society is to blame."
Spanish society, a fair proportion of it, had already cleared off to the beaches. Choosing the first of August may not have been accidental. Or perhaps it was just a further example of Rajoy tardiness. He doesn't do things in a hurry. Like going before parliament and clearing up any slight confusion there might be regarding his having allegedly trousered whole loads of black money over a number of years.
Rajoy, normally to be found as far away as it is physically possible for a democratically elected leader to be from any form of interrogation or questioning, had been reticent in having to deal with the inconvenience of addressing some bloody annoying opposition politicians who were going to stage a vote of censure if he didn't come and have a word. Unsurprisingly, once he had finally been persuaded not to carry on hiding in the cupboard, which is what he normally does, he came out in full fighting mode. Clearly, the delay in his making an appearance was so that he could work on his performance. "More aggression, Mariano. Blame the press. Blame Rubalcaba for damaging the reputation of Spain. What was that, Mariano? Yes, there is still a reputation that can be damaged. Just about. If you must, give the baying hordes a little bit. Say you're sorry for having trusted a criminal. That'll be enough."
Uncle Alfredo, along with the other baying hordes, would have known full well that Mariano wasn't going to make a resignation speech and call for an election. And there will be plenty who will argue that there was no basis for him to have to resign. It isn't as if he has been found guilty of anything. Which is true, but then what is the truth?
What we have to ask ourselves, and we are none the wiser after Rajoy's ranting, is whether "El Mundo" and "El País" were taken in by the Bárcenas papers, whether Bárcenas has engaged in some elaborate fabrication and whether, in the case in particular of "El Mundo", the paper had sought to manipulate and distort Bárcenas's documents in an attempt to bring Rajoy down and so create political instability.
Some parts of Spanish society which have been paying any attention and not preferring to lower their ears and eyes under warm seas in the Mediterranean will believe that Bárcenas has indeed made the whole thing up and has attempted to hang an innocent man. Other parts, and they are in a majority, won't know what to think or what to believe other than that the accusations implicit in the Bárcenas papers are symptomatic of the rotten core of Spanish politics.
Rajoy's admission that he made a mistake in trusting Bárcenas was akin to the willingness to make a concession in a negotiation. But Rubalcaba was right to press him on the text messages which showed him offering support to Bárcenas until earlier this year. He was only implicated at the time, argued Rajoy, not condemned. Even if they were just messages born of friendship, they raise questions as to Rajoy's judgement. And, admission or concession, they do not remove the doubts that will linger.
Rajoy's previous evasion was not just typical of him as a person, it was typical of a political system that cannot bear scrutiny. His feistiness in parliament was as much a show of personal slight having been taken as it was of indignation that he should even have to answer questions. He should, or so you would have thought in a supposedly democratic society, have made statements far earlier. But he didn't. And now, despite his admission of a mistake, he has failed to convince. A combination of his own uncommunicativeness, his tardiness and a political system that puts far too low a premium on accountability and ethics draws many to conclusions at variance with what, finally, he told parliament.
More could of course emerge. Bárcenas has only one thing in mind. Revenge. He has been hung out to dry and he doesn't care who he takes down with him. But even were more to emerge, who would know what to believe other than that the whole affair stinks of the stench of an unaccountable political system.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Spanish society, a fair proportion of it, had already cleared off to the beaches. Choosing the first of August may not have been accidental. Or perhaps it was just a further example of Rajoy tardiness. He doesn't do things in a hurry. Like going before parliament and clearing up any slight confusion there might be regarding his having allegedly trousered whole loads of black money over a number of years.
Rajoy, normally to be found as far away as it is physically possible for a democratically elected leader to be from any form of interrogation or questioning, had been reticent in having to deal with the inconvenience of addressing some bloody annoying opposition politicians who were going to stage a vote of censure if he didn't come and have a word. Unsurprisingly, once he had finally been persuaded not to carry on hiding in the cupboard, which is what he normally does, he came out in full fighting mode. Clearly, the delay in his making an appearance was so that he could work on his performance. "More aggression, Mariano. Blame the press. Blame Rubalcaba for damaging the reputation of Spain. What was that, Mariano? Yes, there is still a reputation that can be damaged. Just about. If you must, give the baying hordes a little bit. Say you're sorry for having trusted a criminal. That'll be enough."
Uncle Alfredo, along with the other baying hordes, would have known full well that Mariano wasn't going to make a resignation speech and call for an election. And there will be plenty who will argue that there was no basis for him to have to resign. It isn't as if he has been found guilty of anything. Which is true, but then what is the truth?
What we have to ask ourselves, and we are none the wiser after Rajoy's ranting, is whether "El Mundo" and "El País" were taken in by the Bárcenas papers, whether Bárcenas has engaged in some elaborate fabrication and whether, in the case in particular of "El Mundo", the paper had sought to manipulate and distort Bárcenas's documents in an attempt to bring Rajoy down and so create political instability.
Some parts of Spanish society which have been paying any attention and not preferring to lower their ears and eyes under warm seas in the Mediterranean will believe that Bárcenas has indeed made the whole thing up and has attempted to hang an innocent man. Other parts, and they are in a majority, won't know what to think or what to believe other than that the accusations implicit in the Bárcenas papers are symptomatic of the rotten core of Spanish politics.
Rajoy's admission that he made a mistake in trusting Bárcenas was akin to the willingness to make a concession in a negotiation. But Rubalcaba was right to press him on the text messages which showed him offering support to Bárcenas until earlier this year. He was only implicated at the time, argued Rajoy, not condemned. Even if they were just messages born of friendship, they raise questions as to Rajoy's judgement. And, admission or concession, they do not remove the doubts that will linger.
Rajoy's previous evasion was not just typical of him as a person, it was typical of a political system that cannot bear scrutiny. His feistiness in parliament was as much a show of personal slight having been taken as it was of indignation that he should even have to answer questions. He should, or so you would have thought in a supposedly democratic society, have made statements far earlier. But he didn't. And now, despite his admission of a mistake, he has failed to convince. A combination of his own uncommunicativeness, his tardiness and a political system that puts far too low a premium on accountability and ethics draws many to conclusions at variance with what, finally, he told parliament.
More could of course emerge. Bárcenas has only one thing in mind. Revenge. He has been hung out to dry and he doesn't care who he takes down with him. But even were more to emerge, who would know what to believe other than that the whole affair stinks of the stench of an unaccountable political system.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Every "Bild" Tells A Story
"The seventeenth state topples." Germany has sixteen states, its sixteen Bundesländer. These are sixteen states within the borders of Germany. There is a seventeenth. Mallorca. Germany's relationship with Mallorca is not the same as Britain's or any other country's. It is a great deal more intimate. Mallorca is not just a holiday destination, it is as though it is an honorary member of the Bundesrepublik.
"Bild" deals with the sensationalist. It is very popular, but there are plenty of Germans who look down their noses at it, just as there are Germans who would look down their noses at Mallorca.
The German relationship is, in these respects therefore, not dissimilar to Britain's relationship with Mallorca. And as with the British press, "Bild", where Mallorca is concerned, both giveth and taketh away. "Germany's favourite island," it headlined a special feature in May to announce its collaboration with Air Berlin to fly lucky winners to Mallorca for the broadcast of "Wetten dass ...?". With a nod in the direction of Mallorca's culture, it offered mentions of Chopin and Valldemossa before getting down to the real business and a description of the island's "dream beaches".
A month or so on and "Bild" has shown its other side. The taketh away side. The seventeenth state toppling side. The darker side. And Mallorca's "dark summer" side.
It stings when foreign media attack Mallorca. It stung Magalluf when it was discovered that the BBC had exposed its darker side. It has stung in the past when "Bild" has been critical or been sensationalist. It was "Bild" which reckoned that bird flu in Germany had been brought back from Playa de Palma. And once again, it is Playa de Palma that the newspaper has turned its attention to. Playa de Palma, Arenal, the main German tourist centre on the island.
It stings, but who is really stung? Is it the tourist, either regular or prospective? Or is it the sensitive Mallorcan or resident of the island? It depends, in part, on the novelty aspect of the sensationalism; in part, on the accuracy and the truth. The BBC claimed that it would be telling the truth about Magalluf, but then truth was a good word to include in a programme title. You knew what was coming, and it didn't disappoint. But nor did it say anything that wasn't already known. "Bild" has said nothing that isn't already known. Problems in Playa de Palma show, and have shown, that Magalluf's problems are not unique; the main difference lies with the nationality.
Has the BBC's documentary made any noticeable difference to Magalluf, either in terms of numbers or in terms of actions taken to eradicate problems? As to the former, the answer would appear to be no. As to the latter, well possibly it has. The programme was criticised, but it stung; there was truth, even if it was only a certain truth and nothing but the whole truth. Will "Bild", using the oldest journalistic trick in the book, of starting its article with a series of negatives - binge-drinking, mugging whores, criminal gangs, gambling tricks, cheap sex, fatal balcony falls - make any difference to a German public familiar with issues in Playa de Palma and with the "Bild" style? Probably not. But it might just sting Palma and Llucmajor town halls.
The Spanish media does what it typically does when a full-frontal assault is launched by the foreign media. It closes ranks with outraged local authorities and others who would protest that a foul has been committed. It brandishes the "sensationalist" charge (not unreasonably and not inaccurately, admittedly) and, as has happened with the "Bild" article, dissects the facts and stats. Mallorca is not more dangerous than it used to be. Criminal incidents were down last year. "Bild" should get its facts right. This is the reaction.
Of course it should get its facts right, but if the facts are wrong, then why are there people in Magalluf and Playa de Palma who are sick to the back teeth with enduring problems that exist? Why are there petitions to get something done?
Yet, and here is the irony, the Spanish media, while eschewing the sensationalist, feeds the foreign media with its "facts". For instance, if "Bild" uses an image of young tourists drinking from an alcohol-filled bucket, this is no different to images that have been presented in the past by the Spanish press.
"Bild" is sensationalist, but sensationalism has lost its power to sensationalise because of its ubiquity. Nevertheless, it can have some impact. "Bild" means picture. Every picture tells a story. It may not be the whole story, but it isn't necessarily the wrong story.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
"Bild" deals with the sensationalist. It is very popular, but there are plenty of Germans who look down their noses at it, just as there are Germans who would look down their noses at Mallorca.
The German relationship is, in these respects therefore, not dissimilar to Britain's relationship with Mallorca. And as with the British press, "Bild", where Mallorca is concerned, both giveth and taketh away. "Germany's favourite island," it headlined a special feature in May to announce its collaboration with Air Berlin to fly lucky winners to Mallorca for the broadcast of "Wetten dass ...?". With a nod in the direction of Mallorca's culture, it offered mentions of Chopin and Valldemossa before getting down to the real business and a description of the island's "dream beaches".
A month or so on and "Bild" has shown its other side. The taketh away side. The seventeenth state toppling side. The darker side. And Mallorca's "dark summer" side.
It stings when foreign media attack Mallorca. It stung Magalluf when it was discovered that the BBC had exposed its darker side. It has stung in the past when "Bild" has been critical or been sensationalist. It was "Bild" which reckoned that bird flu in Germany had been brought back from Playa de Palma. And once again, it is Playa de Palma that the newspaper has turned its attention to. Playa de Palma, Arenal, the main German tourist centre on the island.
It stings, but who is really stung? Is it the tourist, either regular or prospective? Or is it the sensitive Mallorcan or resident of the island? It depends, in part, on the novelty aspect of the sensationalism; in part, on the accuracy and the truth. The BBC claimed that it would be telling the truth about Magalluf, but then truth was a good word to include in a programme title. You knew what was coming, and it didn't disappoint. But nor did it say anything that wasn't already known. "Bild" has said nothing that isn't already known. Problems in Playa de Palma show, and have shown, that Magalluf's problems are not unique; the main difference lies with the nationality.
Has the BBC's documentary made any noticeable difference to Magalluf, either in terms of numbers or in terms of actions taken to eradicate problems? As to the former, the answer would appear to be no. As to the latter, well possibly it has. The programme was criticised, but it stung; there was truth, even if it was only a certain truth and nothing but the whole truth. Will "Bild", using the oldest journalistic trick in the book, of starting its article with a series of negatives - binge-drinking, mugging whores, criminal gangs, gambling tricks, cheap sex, fatal balcony falls - make any difference to a German public familiar with issues in Playa de Palma and with the "Bild" style? Probably not. But it might just sting Palma and Llucmajor town halls.
The Spanish media does what it typically does when a full-frontal assault is launched by the foreign media. It closes ranks with outraged local authorities and others who would protest that a foul has been committed. It brandishes the "sensationalist" charge (not unreasonably and not inaccurately, admittedly) and, as has happened with the "Bild" article, dissects the facts and stats. Mallorca is not more dangerous than it used to be. Criminal incidents were down last year. "Bild" should get its facts right. This is the reaction.
Of course it should get its facts right, but if the facts are wrong, then why are there people in Magalluf and Playa de Palma who are sick to the back teeth with enduring problems that exist? Why are there petitions to get something done?
Yet, and here is the irony, the Spanish media, while eschewing the sensationalist, feeds the foreign media with its "facts". For instance, if "Bild" uses an image of young tourists drinking from an alcohol-filled bucket, this is no different to images that have been presented in the past by the Spanish press.
"Bild" is sensationalist, but sensationalism has lost its power to sensationalise because of its ubiquity. Nevertheless, it can have some impact. "Bild" means picture. Every picture tells a story. It may not be the whole story, but it isn't necessarily the wrong story.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 07, 2013
The Super-Reduced Rajoy: Señor 4%
Mariano may be denying everything as usual but, as with his likely bowing to the Sheldon Adelson billions and so the creation of the great smoking exception at Eurovegas, chances are that he will be forced to prostrate himself in front of the Rompuy-Merkel altar and will indeed need to "touch" IVA once more.
We're not touching anything, only exploring recommendations (these recommendations being a euphemism for demands). This was what Mariano had to say on Tuesday. There are no plans to amend the structure of value added tax, he remarked on Wednesday. By Thursday, however, and even if Rajoy was continuing to deny, the ministerial supremo for industry, energy and tourism, José Manuel Soria, was suggesting that there could well be some touching up in an IVA style. Recommendations? No, you'll do as we say.
It is not known whether Sheldon has been having a word other than the one regarding permission to smoke at Eurovegas in Mariano's shell-like, but if he has, it may well be along the lines of: "Y'all know this 21% Eva for casinos. I've heard tell y'all have lower rates of Eva. I'm not talking 10%. I'm talking 4%, boy. Super reeeeduced, baby."
The super-reducing Rajoy, growing smaller by the day, will probably have some bad news for anyone inclined to ask for special dispensation and slap a mere 4% IVA on a business operation. The troika, as part of its demands (sorry, recommendations) has been eyeing up the super-reduced rate of 4%. We know this because, although Mariano has been mute on the subject, JoSo at industry, energy and tourism has been singing like a canary; appropriately enough for a former president of the Canary Islands. The demands-recommendations have fingered the 4%, JoSo has admitted, and they are going to be touched up and will head upwards. To 10%. Or more. Possibly.
And to what types of service or product does the super-reduced rate currently apply? Basic food products are one, pharmaceutical products another. And then there is the written word. Books are 4%, so also are newspapers.
Soria has said that other countries apply higher rates for products which are super-reduced in Spain, and he's right, some countries do. But then some others, and the UK is one, apply a zero rate to newspapers. Osborne hasn't been so mad as to incur the eternal wrath of the "Mail" or "The Telegraph" by slapping VAT on them. Actually, it is not a case of not being mad. In a democracy where there is a premium on the value of information, no premium is attached to its price. Spain has attempted to keep this premium as low as possible, but it may just have lost the struggle.
The Newspaper Society in the UK is one organisation that has been to the fore in guaranteeing that the zero rate of VAT is maintained. It has also campaigned for zero rates in Europe. Were there to ever be harmonisation of VAT throughout the European Union, the zero rate on newspapers would, the Society hopes, be adopted.
The need for deficit reduction, however, cares little for the democratic principle of making information as cheap as possible. One can argue that, especially under difficult economic conditions, the exemptions of zero rating or super-reduction should be scrapped. If certain products and services have had to suffer rises, then why not others? (And it should be noted that, of the three rates of Spanish IVA, the super-reduced rate has been the only one that has not been raised.)
Yes, one can argue this, but there is a further principle of facilitating reading. It should also be noted that Spanish parents were hit with a significant rise in IVA for most school materials last September. Books might now become more expensive and so there is, therefore, an educational principle to be taken account of as well.
And while the cost of a newspaper or a book might rise because of an increase in IVA, the cost of production would also, in all likelihood, rise. Printing a newspaper attracts 4% IVA, while most other printing is charged at 21%. Inputs and outputs there are in value added tax, but they don't mean that prices don't rise or margins aren't eroded.
There is a perversity in European demands to increase the super-reduced rate. On the one hand, there is the Newspaper Society lobbying and gaining a general consensus about future zero rating and the European Union standing for freedom of information and the democratic principle of information. On the other hand, this same union might make Spain increase the price of democracy. This recommendation, at least, should be resisted.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
We're not touching anything, only exploring recommendations (these recommendations being a euphemism for demands). This was what Mariano had to say on Tuesday. There are no plans to amend the structure of value added tax, he remarked on Wednesday. By Thursday, however, and even if Rajoy was continuing to deny, the ministerial supremo for industry, energy and tourism, José Manuel Soria, was suggesting that there could well be some touching up in an IVA style. Recommendations? No, you'll do as we say.
It is not known whether Sheldon has been having a word other than the one regarding permission to smoke at Eurovegas in Mariano's shell-like, but if he has, it may well be along the lines of: "Y'all know this 21% Eva for casinos. I've heard tell y'all have lower rates of Eva. I'm not talking 10%. I'm talking 4%, boy. Super reeeeduced, baby."
The super-reducing Rajoy, growing smaller by the day, will probably have some bad news for anyone inclined to ask for special dispensation and slap a mere 4% IVA on a business operation. The troika, as part of its demands (sorry, recommendations) has been eyeing up the super-reduced rate of 4%. We know this because, although Mariano has been mute on the subject, JoSo at industry, energy and tourism has been singing like a canary; appropriately enough for a former president of the Canary Islands. The demands-recommendations have fingered the 4%, JoSo has admitted, and they are going to be touched up and will head upwards. To 10%. Or more. Possibly.
And to what types of service or product does the super-reduced rate currently apply? Basic food products are one, pharmaceutical products another. And then there is the written word. Books are 4%, so also are newspapers.
Soria has said that other countries apply higher rates for products which are super-reduced in Spain, and he's right, some countries do. But then some others, and the UK is one, apply a zero rate to newspapers. Osborne hasn't been so mad as to incur the eternal wrath of the "Mail" or "The Telegraph" by slapping VAT on them. Actually, it is not a case of not being mad. In a democracy where there is a premium on the value of information, no premium is attached to its price. Spain has attempted to keep this premium as low as possible, but it may just have lost the struggle.
The Newspaper Society in the UK is one organisation that has been to the fore in guaranteeing that the zero rate of VAT is maintained. It has also campaigned for zero rates in Europe. Were there to ever be harmonisation of VAT throughout the European Union, the zero rate on newspapers would, the Society hopes, be adopted.
The need for deficit reduction, however, cares little for the democratic principle of making information as cheap as possible. One can argue that, especially under difficult economic conditions, the exemptions of zero rating or super-reduction should be scrapped. If certain products and services have had to suffer rises, then why not others? (And it should be noted that, of the three rates of Spanish IVA, the super-reduced rate has been the only one that has not been raised.)
Yes, one can argue this, but there is a further principle of facilitating reading. It should also be noted that Spanish parents were hit with a significant rise in IVA for most school materials last September. Books might now become more expensive and so there is, therefore, an educational principle to be taken account of as well.
And while the cost of a newspaper or a book might rise because of an increase in IVA, the cost of production would also, in all likelihood, rise. Printing a newspaper attracts 4% IVA, while most other printing is charged at 21%. Inputs and outputs there are in value added tax, but they don't mean that prices don't rise or margins aren't eroded.
There is a perversity in European demands to increase the super-reduced rate. On the one hand, there is the Newspaper Society lobbying and gaining a general consensus about future zero rating and the European Union standing for freedom of information and the democratic principle of information. On the other hand, this same union might make Spain increase the price of democracy. This recommendation, at least, should be resisted.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Power Of Love: Jaume Matas
From the start of his second presidency until anti-corruption investigations began to unravel his world, six years had passed in the life of Jaume Matas. For each one of these years, he has now been condemned to serve the equivalent in prison. Possibly. At present, he remains at liberty. His sentence is to be appealed, the Supreme Court will be invited to ratify (or not) the decision of a Palma court, though there is still the small matter of numerous other trials that await Matas.
We now no longer have to pussyfoot. Or do we? Matas' lawyer argues that the higher court has often overturned decisions by lower courts, indeed he appears confident that the Supreme Court will overturn the sentence against Matas. In his view, Matas remains innocent. Can we dispense with the pussyfooting, or do we still have to resort to the "allegedly" caveat?
The essence of the first trial as part of the "caso Palma Arena" and of the guilty verdicts delivered against Matas, journalist Antonio Alemany, ex-director of government communication Joan Martorell and head of the Nimbus PR agency Miguel Romero was that Alemany received payments well in excess of what he was entitled to in writing speeches and glowing articles about Matas and his government and that Alemany's businesses, a news agency and an online newspaper, benefited from government funds.
Matas' offence, put in basic terms, was that he bought favours, while Alemany, condemned by the prosecution as being "fiercely independent except when it came to money and power", was happy to be the one being bought.
On the face of it, this has been an open-and-shut case of corruption in public office, but for journalists with the Spanish media reporting the case and now analysing its verdicts, there has to be a slight nag in the back of their minds. What Matas and the others did was to set up an arrangement that was not out in the open, unlike the system of government funds that have been paid, quite legitimately, to newspaper publishers. Alemany's online newspaper has made a point of itemising the payment of these funds. Alemany's independence was bought, but how truly can the Spanish press locally be said to be totally independent when it has been a government beneficiary?
Why, though, would Matas have gone to the lengths that he apparently did in order to obtain favourable press coverage? I'm not sure that this question has been adequately answered or even discussed. A hint as to the answer may lie with what has emerged of Matas, a man depicted as vain and a power freak who dominated his government. It is, without getting too deep into the psychology of someone known only through press reporting, a not untypical extension of a combination of vanity and power to also seek to be "loved". One way of doing so is to buy the right reporting. Another way is to buy something that will guarantee the love. Robert Maxwell was an example. When I once asked an executive at one of Maxwell's companies why he wanted to buy Manchester United, the answer was simple. He wanted to be loved by the fans.
It is still difficult, though, to really understand. Alemany wrote for a newspaper not exactly ill-disposed to the Partido Popular ("El Mundo") in any event. One has to presume that the arrangement with Alemany was one of guaranteeing that that fierce independence didn't suddenly include criticism. But it was also a case of power going to the head, of believing that anything could be done with impunity, including abuse of public office in blatantly manipulating the media (rather than the more subtle or less overt ways by which the press is influenced). In Matas and Alemany, from their performances and demeanour as reported and depicted in court (including the pre-trial declarations that Matas made), here were two people who appeared to mock the court, who gave the impression of being superior.
Ultimately, as the prosecution has put it, everything comes back to power and to money. And now that the court, notwithstanding the appeal and reference to the Supreme Court, has had its say, a "cascade" of repentance is expected from various of the accused in other parts of the Palma Arena case. The game is up, they might believe, and will have noted that neither Martorell nor Romero, who confessed, will actually go to jail. What more, though, awaits Jaume Matas? And what also now awaits the Duke of Palma, for whom the verdict, it is being said, has made his part in the whole affair that much more "complicated"?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
We now no longer have to pussyfoot. Or do we? Matas' lawyer argues that the higher court has often overturned decisions by lower courts, indeed he appears confident that the Supreme Court will overturn the sentence against Matas. In his view, Matas remains innocent. Can we dispense with the pussyfooting, or do we still have to resort to the "allegedly" caveat?
The essence of the first trial as part of the "caso Palma Arena" and of the guilty verdicts delivered against Matas, journalist Antonio Alemany, ex-director of government communication Joan Martorell and head of the Nimbus PR agency Miguel Romero was that Alemany received payments well in excess of what he was entitled to in writing speeches and glowing articles about Matas and his government and that Alemany's businesses, a news agency and an online newspaper, benefited from government funds.
Matas' offence, put in basic terms, was that he bought favours, while Alemany, condemned by the prosecution as being "fiercely independent except when it came to money and power", was happy to be the one being bought.
On the face of it, this has been an open-and-shut case of corruption in public office, but for journalists with the Spanish media reporting the case and now analysing its verdicts, there has to be a slight nag in the back of their minds. What Matas and the others did was to set up an arrangement that was not out in the open, unlike the system of government funds that have been paid, quite legitimately, to newspaper publishers. Alemany's online newspaper has made a point of itemising the payment of these funds. Alemany's independence was bought, but how truly can the Spanish press locally be said to be totally independent when it has been a government beneficiary?
Why, though, would Matas have gone to the lengths that he apparently did in order to obtain favourable press coverage? I'm not sure that this question has been adequately answered or even discussed. A hint as to the answer may lie with what has emerged of Matas, a man depicted as vain and a power freak who dominated his government. It is, without getting too deep into the psychology of someone known only through press reporting, a not untypical extension of a combination of vanity and power to also seek to be "loved". One way of doing so is to buy the right reporting. Another way is to buy something that will guarantee the love. Robert Maxwell was an example. When I once asked an executive at one of Maxwell's companies why he wanted to buy Manchester United, the answer was simple. He wanted to be loved by the fans.
It is still difficult, though, to really understand. Alemany wrote for a newspaper not exactly ill-disposed to the Partido Popular ("El Mundo") in any event. One has to presume that the arrangement with Alemany was one of guaranteeing that that fierce independence didn't suddenly include criticism. But it was also a case of power going to the head, of believing that anything could be done with impunity, including abuse of public office in blatantly manipulating the media (rather than the more subtle or less overt ways by which the press is influenced). In Matas and Alemany, from their performances and demeanour as reported and depicted in court (including the pre-trial declarations that Matas made), here were two people who appeared to mock the court, who gave the impression of being superior.
Ultimately, as the prosecution has put it, everything comes back to power and to money. And now that the court, notwithstanding the appeal and reference to the Supreme Court, has had its say, a "cascade" of repentance is expected from various of the accused in other parts of the Palma Arena case. The game is up, they might believe, and will have noted that neither Martorell nor Romero, who confessed, will actually go to jail. What more, though, awaits Jaume Matas? And what also now awaits the Duke of Palma, for whom the verdict, it is being said, has made his part in the whole affair that much more "complicated"?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Getting Into An I Pad-dy: Newspapers
I Pad, U Pad, Wii Pad. We all Pad together.
Unfortunately, for Apple and for newspaper and magazine publishers, we don't. We may in some distant future. But for now, we pad as a small minority.
The publishers are ambivalent to this future. They would happily dispense with one of their biggest cost bases - printing - but they are no nearer creating a business model that satisfactorily digitalises and monetises hard copy into oblivion. Ah but the iPad will be that model. Some might think so; some, like Steve Jobs, would hope so. But the mere newspaper-reading mortal continues to be a Steve Unjobsworthy who hasn't become an Apple organisation man and hasn't been commanded by the contemporary tablets of stone, the ostentatiously styled modern miracle of the iPad tablet and its peers.
There's bad news for newspaper publishers; good news for publishers of magazines. PriceWaterhouseCoopers have reported that whereas revenue from digital magazines is set to "sky rocket", thanks to the iPad, sales of subscriptions of newspapers in this digital form will not be sufficient to offset the fall in print sales.
The iPad is many things, but essentially, for many of its products, its newspaper products, it is merely a digital replacement of the hard copy. The hype, and that also for the iPhone, the Android and any other current-day trickery you care to mention, outstrips the reality. There are many, many users of course. But this doesn't mean that newspapers will suddenly disappear. As pointed out by the UK firm Enders Analysis: "Ten million pay for a daily newspaper in the UK. They spend roughly 30 pounds a month each. There will not be 10 million people spending 30 pounds a month on the iPad any time soon".
In a way, the iPad is an experiment, as is much digital and internet publishing. It is worthwhile playing with, but it is only one aspect of the digital future. Newspaper publishers who see it as the only holy grail of a prosperous non-print new world are seriously deluding themselves. Experiments need to be conducted in different ways, and one is to create a wholly new product (or products) with its own revenue stream. It's thinking out of the box, but the fear is that publishers will be seduced into boxing themselves solely inside the iPad tablet box.
All of which brings us to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin". It is now iPad-able, online in full. At a price. Part of a service under the non-snappy moniker of Kioskoymas, through which we are told "the most complete offer of press of quality" is available, the Bulletin is the only English paper in what is an online iPad-oriented system for Spanish newspaper and magazine publishers. A bizarre aspect of this service, were you minded to want to subscribe to the paper, is that you would need to read Spanish. Obviously you would. They're not going to have an English version to guide you through the online registration and payment process when the service is meant to be for Spanish readers.
And subscription is a not unimportant element. Getting the punter to buy a month or more ahead does wonders for cash planning in the uncertain digital world but it runs counter to consumer psychology. Subscriptions to hard-copy newspapers have only ever been a small part of publishers' businesses. Readers habitually buy daily, a truism for a daily publication. Why would you stump up in advance when you haven't in the past? News International is facing this conundrum along with other more pressing matters.
A solution is an incentive. Yet from what I can make out, unless you have a multiple subscription, i.e. to at least more than one title through Kioskoymas, you pay the going rate. And unless you, as an English reader, are inclined to also read Spanish papers or even able to, then you are not going to have a multiple subscription. Moreover, a month seems to be the minimum subscription period, this being unlike other services which enable you to pay daily.
And one of these services is Orbyt. This was launched last year and features "El Mundo", "La Razón" and other Spanish papers as well as magazines. So Kioskoymas is a rival and a less elegant one than Orbyt, if the websites of the two services are anything to go by. The competition with Orbyt is probably quite significant. The Bulletin is part of the Grupo Serra stable, of which "Ultima Hora" is its biggest-selling paper. And "Ultima Hora" is a competitor with the Balearics version of "El Mundo". For it to have an iPad presence as a rival makes sense, and you wonder if this is the main reason why The Bulletin is now iPad-able; it has been bundled in, but it is "Ultima Hora" that really matters.
The Bulletin might gain from this service, it might not, but fundamentally it cannot be seen as the be all and end all, and this is the message for any newspaper publisher. The iPad is basically a means of cannibalising the product. It is a replacement technique more than it is a new-product technique and it is the latter that publishers need to work on.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Unfortunately, for Apple and for newspaper and magazine publishers, we don't. We may in some distant future. But for now, we pad as a small minority.
The publishers are ambivalent to this future. They would happily dispense with one of their biggest cost bases - printing - but they are no nearer creating a business model that satisfactorily digitalises and monetises hard copy into oblivion. Ah but the iPad will be that model. Some might think so; some, like Steve Jobs, would hope so. But the mere newspaper-reading mortal continues to be a Steve Unjobsworthy who hasn't become an Apple organisation man and hasn't been commanded by the contemporary tablets of stone, the ostentatiously styled modern miracle of the iPad tablet and its peers.
There's bad news for newspaper publishers; good news for publishers of magazines. PriceWaterhouseCoopers have reported that whereas revenue from digital magazines is set to "sky rocket", thanks to the iPad, sales of subscriptions of newspapers in this digital form will not be sufficient to offset the fall in print sales.
The iPad is many things, but essentially, for many of its products, its newspaper products, it is merely a digital replacement of the hard copy. The hype, and that also for the iPhone, the Android and any other current-day trickery you care to mention, outstrips the reality. There are many, many users of course. But this doesn't mean that newspapers will suddenly disappear. As pointed out by the UK firm Enders Analysis: "Ten million pay for a daily newspaper in the UK. They spend roughly 30 pounds a month each. There will not be 10 million people spending 30 pounds a month on the iPad any time soon".
In a way, the iPad is an experiment, as is much digital and internet publishing. It is worthwhile playing with, but it is only one aspect of the digital future. Newspaper publishers who see it as the only holy grail of a prosperous non-print new world are seriously deluding themselves. Experiments need to be conducted in different ways, and one is to create a wholly new product (or products) with its own revenue stream. It's thinking out of the box, but the fear is that publishers will be seduced into boxing themselves solely inside the iPad tablet box.
All of which brings us to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin". It is now iPad-able, online in full. At a price. Part of a service under the non-snappy moniker of Kioskoymas, through which we are told "the most complete offer of press of quality" is available, the Bulletin is the only English paper in what is an online iPad-oriented system for Spanish newspaper and magazine publishers. A bizarre aspect of this service, were you minded to want to subscribe to the paper, is that you would need to read Spanish. Obviously you would. They're not going to have an English version to guide you through the online registration and payment process when the service is meant to be for Spanish readers.
And subscription is a not unimportant element. Getting the punter to buy a month or more ahead does wonders for cash planning in the uncertain digital world but it runs counter to consumer psychology. Subscriptions to hard-copy newspapers have only ever been a small part of publishers' businesses. Readers habitually buy daily, a truism for a daily publication. Why would you stump up in advance when you haven't in the past? News International is facing this conundrum along with other more pressing matters.
A solution is an incentive. Yet from what I can make out, unless you have a multiple subscription, i.e. to at least more than one title through Kioskoymas, you pay the going rate. And unless you, as an English reader, are inclined to also read Spanish papers or even able to, then you are not going to have a multiple subscription. Moreover, a month seems to be the minimum subscription period, this being unlike other services which enable you to pay daily.
And one of these services is Orbyt. This was launched last year and features "El Mundo", "La Razón" and other Spanish papers as well as magazines. So Kioskoymas is a rival and a less elegant one than Orbyt, if the websites of the two services are anything to go by. The competition with Orbyt is probably quite significant. The Bulletin is part of the Grupo Serra stable, of which "Ultima Hora" is its biggest-selling paper. And "Ultima Hora" is a competitor with the Balearics version of "El Mundo". For it to have an iPad presence as a rival makes sense, and you wonder if this is the main reason why The Bulletin is now iPad-able; it has been bundled in, but it is "Ultima Hora" that really matters.
The Bulletin might gain from this service, it might not, but fundamentally it cannot be seen as the be all and end all, and this is the message for any newspaper publisher. The iPad is basically a means of cannibalising the product. It is a replacement technique more than it is a new-product technique and it is the latter that publishers need to work on.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, September 03, 2010
Madman Crosses The Water
The things you find out.
Bite-sized sucking pig with pomegranate sauce; white flowers and Scandinavian air; red roses and roses without petals; Macià Batle wine from Santa Maria del Cami; 23 metres high and 50 metres wide; 25 lorries from the UK and mainland Spain.
Want to hazard a guess?
The answers - in order - are: part of the menu for the VIPs; the design of a VIP area; the star's choice of flowers (forgive me, but what are roses without petals?); the same star's supposed choice of plonk; the size of the stage; the number of lorries transporting kit.
Come on, you must know now.
Over the past weeks we have been able to read interviews with three stars (well, two stars and a starlet). During this week we have been able to see photos of a man with a mobile phone (the promoter), a lorry, some stage being built, some more stage being built, and, yes, even more stage being built.
What we have also found out, we think, is that there will be 34,000 people, or maybe 20,000, or perhaps 25,000, assuming all the seats are sold. As of yesterday afternoon, at least 3,000 were unsold out of whatever the total number actually is. No one seems to quite know, or they do, and the press is just offering a multiple choice.
We have also discovered that the two main stars will bring "synergy". Ah yes, a word beloved by management consultants and by managers brainwashed by the consultants into believing such a state can be achieved. At least the consultants would argue that there should be a certain similarity between entities in order to bring about synergetic benefits. When the two stars are from diverse fields, one does have to wonder. But let's not quibble. Synergy there surely will be. Just don't tell those who may be going only for one or the other and who might have paid less had there not been any synergy.
What we have yet to find out is whether it will be a success. But we can predict that it will be, even if it isn't. As we can predict that we will read gushing editorials, see photos of the occasion and, if we're lucky, yet more photos of stage, but this time being dismantled. The editorial will be along the lines of it just goes to prove that Mallorca can put on a "great", "spectacular", "amazing", "remarkable" (select as you will) concert.
When the media is so in lunatic thrall to the appearance of two stars, then what else can you expect, other than pages devoted, on a daily basis, to the minutiae and drivel surrounding that appearance. This manic fascination does, it must be said, appear to have something to do with sponsors' names. Go to the "Diario de Mallorca", for example, and you will find only the occasional, discreet mention. No prizes for guessing where the pages are being filled.
I've got a lot of time for Elton John. He may have been through his own drug-induced nuclear winter, but he has come out of it articulate and sane: unlike the barely intelligible half human Keefronnieryders from the Planet McGowan of the sort Kirk and Spock might have encountered. It's as well that before tomorrow's concert he will never have previously set foot or piano hands in Mallorca, and that afterwards he'll be swiftly away. Sane? He soon wouldn't be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Bite-sized sucking pig with pomegranate sauce; white flowers and Scandinavian air; red roses and roses without petals; Macià Batle wine from Santa Maria del Cami; 23 metres high and 50 metres wide; 25 lorries from the UK and mainland Spain.
Want to hazard a guess?
The answers - in order - are: part of the menu for the VIPs; the design of a VIP area; the star's choice of flowers (forgive me, but what are roses without petals?); the same star's supposed choice of plonk; the size of the stage; the number of lorries transporting kit.
Come on, you must know now.
Over the past weeks we have been able to read interviews with three stars (well, two stars and a starlet). During this week we have been able to see photos of a man with a mobile phone (the promoter), a lorry, some stage being built, some more stage being built, and, yes, even more stage being built.
What we have also found out, we think, is that there will be 34,000 people, or maybe 20,000, or perhaps 25,000, assuming all the seats are sold. As of yesterday afternoon, at least 3,000 were unsold out of whatever the total number actually is. No one seems to quite know, or they do, and the press is just offering a multiple choice.
We have also discovered that the two main stars will bring "synergy". Ah yes, a word beloved by management consultants and by managers brainwashed by the consultants into believing such a state can be achieved. At least the consultants would argue that there should be a certain similarity between entities in order to bring about synergetic benefits. When the two stars are from diverse fields, one does have to wonder. But let's not quibble. Synergy there surely will be. Just don't tell those who may be going only for one or the other and who might have paid less had there not been any synergy.
What we have yet to find out is whether it will be a success. But we can predict that it will be, even if it isn't. As we can predict that we will read gushing editorials, see photos of the occasion and, if we're lucky, yet more photos of stage, but this time being dismantled. The editorial will be along the lines of it just goes to prove that Mallorca can put on a "great", "spectacular", "amazing", "remarkable" (select as you will) concert.
When the media is so in lunatic thrall to the appearance of two stars, then what else can you expect, other than pages devoted, on a daily basis, to the minutiae and drivel surrounding that appearance. This manic fascination does, it must be said, appear to have something to do with sponsors' names. Go to the "Diario de Mallorca", for example, and you will find only the occasional, discreet mention. No prizes for guessing where the pages are being filled.
I've got a lot of time for Elton John. He may have been through his own drug-induced nuclear winter, but he has come out of it articulate and sane: unlike the barely intelligible half human Keefronnieryders from the Planet McGowan of the sort Kirk and Spock might have encountered. It's as well that before tomorrow's concert he will never have previously set foot or piano hands in Mallorca, and that afterwards he'll be swiftly away. Sane? He soon wouldn't be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Pax Bulletinis: British community and newspapers
The British Ambassador to Spain has been visiting Mallorca. You could hardly have missed this if you had read "The Bulletin" on Saturday; not one, not two, not three, but four pages devoted to Giles Paxman - Paxo Minor, he is the younger brother of Jezza. How to fill space and fail to influence people.
The ambassador pitched up at the offices of "The Bulletin" to hand over a commemorative letter, albeit that it is two years early; the paper celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2012, but this didn't stop a small orgy of self-congratulation, the always beaming British Consul on hand to enjoy a toast. Oh, that he might venture northwards to meet British businesses. He could take a leaf out of his boss's book: Paxo the younger will apparently be meeting such businesses in Benidorm. But that's not what I want to talk about.
The letter commends the paper on its achievement and on playing a "very important role within the British community". It will be an achievement, but you have to wonder for how much longer.
According to the audited circulation figures supplied by OJD (Oficina de Justificatión de Difusión), the paper's average net circulation declined by 11% from 3,839 copies in 2008 to 3,405 in 2009. Economic hard times may partially explain this, but there surely are other factors, such as ease of buying British papers and the internet.
When the paper started in 1962, and for many years thereafter, it was not only a visionary move to publish it but it was also "very important". British papers could not be bought easily, and there were few alternative sources of information, especially for the Brit who resolutely refused to learn or read Spanish.
None of this obtains now, other than the Brit still steadfastly avoiding the native. What actually is the point of the paper now? One that uses translated pieces from "Ultima Hora", stuff from the internet (sometimes verbatim), can verge on the unintelligible (we all know what) and is rarely if ever contentious or provocative, except to a few who engage in arguments regarding British or arcane international politics or when a letter-writer raises a vaguely controversial point. The word "lightweight" too easily comes to mind.
Perhaps when the paper's nickname is used - and I assume everyone knows this - there is a sense of unfairness; too high a level of expectation. Look at those circulation figures, and work it out for yourselves. This unfairness also masks genuine affection for the paper, despite its idiosyncracies. But this affection stems in part from the fact that it is something of a bygone age. In the same stable as "The Bulletin", the Catalan paper "dBalears" has been commended for its visual style. It, "Ultima Hora" and the German weekly, "Mallorca Magazin" all have decent websites, replete with additional advertising possibilities. None of this applies to "The Bulletin".
And is it genuinely "very important" within the British community? I would like to say that it is. It was, but I doubt that it now is. Too often, for example, one hears the gripe that it neglects parts of Mallorca away from Palma or Calvia. Some of you will know that I did have a brief association with the paper. It was intended to create more of an emphasis on the north of the island. I also spoke to them about how to enhance the brand name of the paper, and it's a strong name, despite the mickey-taking nickname; nigh on fifty years lend the brand enormous credibility, or should do, but they fail to in a way that commands real respect. I came to realise I was wasting my time. There was seemingly little interest in either the northern community or in something a bit more innovative. It's a great shame. It could still be "very important", but it's hard to see how without a radical re-think.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The ambassador pitched up at the offices of "The Bulletin" to hand over a commemorative letter, albeit that it is two years early; the paper celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2012, but this didn't stop a small orgy of self-congratulation, the always beaming British Consul on hand to enjoy a toast. Oh, that he might venture northwards to meet British businesses. He could take a leaf out of his boss's book: Paxo the younger will apparently be meeting such businesses in Benidorm. But that's not what I want to talk about.
The letter commends the paper on its achievement and on playing a "very important role within the British community". It will be an achievement, but you have to wonder for how much longer.
According to the audited circulation figures supplied by OJD (Oficina de Justificatión de Difusión), the paper's average net circulation declined by 11% from 3,839 copies in 2008 to 3,405 in 2009. Economic hard times may partially explain this, but there surely are other factors, such as ease of buying British papers and the internet.
When the paper started in 1962, and for many years thereafter, it was not only a visionary move to publish it but it was also "very important". British papers could not be bought easily, and there were few alternative sources of information, especially for the Brit who resolutely refused to learn or read Spanish.
None of this obtains now, other than the Brit still steadfastly avoiding the native. What actually is the point of the paper now? One that uses translated pieces from "Ultima Hora", stuff from the internet (sometimes verbatim), can verge on the unintelligible (we all know what) and is rarely if ever contentious or provocative, except to a few who engage in arguments regarding British or arcane international politics or when a letter-writer raises a vaguely controversial point. The word "lightweight" too easily comes to mind.
Perhaps when the paper's nickname is used - and I assume everyone knows this - there is a sense of unfairness; too high a level of expectation. Look at those circulation figures, and work it out for yourselves. This unfairness also masks genuine affection for the paper, despite its idiosyncracies. But this affection stems in part from the fact that it is something of a bygone age. In the same stable as "The Bulletin", the Catalan paper "dBalears" has been commended for its visual style. It, "Ultima Hora" and the German weekly, "Mallorca Magazin" all have decent websites, replete with additional advertising possibilities. None of this applies to "The Bulletin".
And is it genuinely "very important" within the British community? I would like to say that it is. It was, but I doubt that it now is. Too often, for example, one hears the gripe that it neglects parts of Mallorca away from Palma or Calvia. Some of you will know that I did have a brief association with the paper. It was intended to create more of an emphasis on the north of the island. I also spoke to them about how to enhance the brand name of the paper, and it's a strong name, despite the mickey-taking nickname; nigh on fifty years lend the brand enormous credibility, or should do, but they fail to in a way that commands real respect. I came to realise I was wasting my time. There was seemingly little interest in either the northern community or in something a bit more innovative. It's a great shame. It could still be "very important", but it's hard to see how without a radical re-think.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Source Of Inspiration: On popular tourist destinations
I have a problem with journalists and writers who do not cite sources. It is a problem that has been exacerbated ever since the lazy writer or one desperate to knock off a few hundred words in order to meet a fast-approaching deadline took to using Wikipedia and other sites as get-out-of-jail cards, sometimes using verbatim what can be found on the internet with not a mention of or an acknowledgement as to the source.
Easy it may be to cobble something together with the aid of Google and the cut and paste commands, but it is short-changing not only the reader but also the writer him or herself. Some while ago, I drew attention to the apparent lifting of text from the home page of puertopollensa.com by a journalist writing in "The Sun". It was bad form and it was also a derogation of the journalistic art. For the journalist or other writers, words - his or her own - are the stock-in-trade. Even paraphrasing shows some attempt at originality, but what amounts to plagiarism is nothing of the sort and "in journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics". Where does this quote come from? Wikipedia of course.
One might argue that recourse to using chunks of text from websites is a way of working "smart". Really? I'm not sure that there's anything particularly smart about it. It's not smart, it's not big and it's not clever (and I think Steve Wright was the one who popularised the not big and not clever line, or rather popliarised, as he would have said - I can cite sources till the cows come home; and no, I don't know who came up with that saying. Look it up if you wish; on Wikipedia).
There is another type of non-acknowledgement, which is the unnamed or vague source. Sometimes this can be understandable, when someone prefers not to be named. Fair enough, and it happens all the time, as in, for example, "government sources said". But there are times when it is far less understandable, which brings me to where I really want to be today. In "The Bulletin" yesterday, the editorial referred to "an article in a top British newspaper over the weekend". Apparently this article revealed that Mallorca has slumped to the number eight spot of the "most popular destination(s) with British tourists". The editorial went on to use this as a means of beating the island's tourism. It may well indeed need a beating, but this is not the point. What is, is that because the source is not named, there is no way that the reader, myself in this instance, can check where the article came from or, as importantly, the context and rigour of the results. Well, I suppose one could by spending ages going through Google in the hope of unearthing it, which is in fact what I started to do, but to no avail.
Without being able to identify the source, the reader is left with an incomplete and potentially unreliable picture. There are, it may not have escaped your attention, any number of these "top ten" or "top one hundred"-style articles knocking around in the press. Some have a basis in research, e.g. that which is offered by the likes of ABTA, the tour operators and market research companies; others don't necessarily.
All I did manage to find when a-googling was an article from "The Daily Record", dated 14 July. This made the observation that western Mediterranean destinations are losing ground to those in the eastern Med and north Africa. But we know this anyway. What the article also revealed, seemingly based on what Co-operative Travel had to say and possibly contrary to the trend, was that the "predicted holiday destination hotspots" for 2011-2012 will be Turkey at number one and at number two ... The Balearic Islands. So much for a lack of popularity.
Maybe Mallorca is at number eight, and if so it is less than heartening news, but there can be all sorts of explanations as to why. If one doesn't know the source or the context, one cannot make a full judgement or at least be given the opportunity to make such a judgement. This is just one reason why sources should be acknowledged.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Easy it may be to cobble something together with the aid of Google and the cut and paste commands, but it is short-changing not only the reader but also the writer him or herself. Some while ago, I drew attention to the apparent lifting of text from the home page of puertopollensa.com by a journalist writing in "The Sun". It was bad form and it was also a derogation of the journalistic art. For the journalist or other writers, words - his or her own - are the stock-in-trade. Even paraphrasing shows some attempt at originality, but what amounts to plagiarism is nothing of the sort and "in journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics". Where does this quote come from? Wikipedia of course.
One might argue that recourse to using chunks of text from websites is a way of working "smart". Really? I'm not sure that there's anything particularly smart about it. It's not smart, it's not big and it's not clever (and I think Steve Wright was the one who popularised the not big and not clever line, or rather popliarised, as he would have said - I can cite sources till the cows come home; and no, I don't know who came up with that saying. Look it up if you wish; on Wikipedia).
There is another type of non-acknowledgement, which is the unnamed or vague source. Sometimes this can be understandable, when someone prefers not to be named. Fair enough, and it happens all the time, as in, for example, "government sources said". But there are times when it is far less understandable, which brings me to where I really want to be today. In "The Bulletin" yesterday, the editorial referred to "an article in a top British newspaper over the weekend". Apparently this article revealed that Mallorca has slumped to the number eight spot of the "most popular destination(s) with British tourists". The editorial went on to use this as a means of beating the island's tourism. It may well indeed need a beating, but this is not the point. What is, is that because the source is not named, there is no way that the reader, myself in this instance, can check where the article came from or, as importantly, the context and rigour of the results. Well, I suppose one could by spending ages going through Google in the hope of unearthing it, which is in fact what I started to do, but to no avail.
Without being able to identify the source, the reader is left with an incomplete and potentially unreliable picture. There are, it may not have escaped your attention, any number of these "top ten" or "top one hundred"-style articles knocking around in the press. Some have a basis in research, e.g. that which is offered by the likes of ABTA, the tour operators and market research companies; others don't necessarily.
All I did manage to find when a-googling was an article from "The Daily Record", dated 14 July. This made the observation that western Mediterranean destinations are losing ground to those in the eastern Med and north Africa. But we know this anyway. What the article also revealed, seemingly based on what Co-operative Travel had to say and possibly contrary to the trend, was that the "predicted holiday destination hotspots" for 2011-2012 will be Turkey at number one and at number two ... The Balearic Islands. So much for a lack of popularity.
Maybe Mallorca is at number eight, and if so it is less than heartening news, but there can be all sorts of explanations as to why. If one doesn't know the source or the context, one cannot make a full judgement or at least be given the opportunity to make such a judgement. This is just one reason why sources should be acknowledged.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Lie Back And Think Of ... : Ban on sex advertising
So, the Spanish Government is planning to ban the advertising of sex for sale from newspapers. The government is almost certainly right to wish to do so, even if this sounds rather puritanical, a streak I am rarely inclined to display.
There is something of the bizarre about the pages of classifieds for call girls, "massage" and a smattering of rent boys that are to be found in mostly all newspapers locally. The two Spanish dailies in Mallorca have them, as do the nationals, including "El País", which "The Guardian" points out is of a similar left-leaning nature to itself and thus, you would think, in the PC category, and also "ABC", a paper with more than a hint of religious righteousness.
The government, though, is going to cause itself some problems. The newspaper proprietors are unlikely to take a ban lying down, either on their backs or in any other position you may care to imagine. "El País", for example, is a natural ally of the Zapatero government, which can do with all the support it can muster at the moment. There is also a view that banning such advertising would be a curb on free speech, which may be a legitimate argument were it not for the censorious nature of the media when it comes to anything to do with the royal family; overstep the mark and it will land a journalist, or a cartoonist, in the dock before a beak. If the press was wishing to seek a free-speech battleground, this might well be it, and not sleazy ads for well-endowed females.
The sheer volume of these ads can be overwhelming. How much sex can actually be sold? Not enough where the papers are concerned, which already derive significant revenues from the advertising. The papers are also at pains to point out that if the government wants to stop the ads, it should make prostitution illegal. But this argument begins to move into rather murkier territory. Were it the case that the ads were just being placed by some local slapper, then there wouldn't necessarily be much harm in it. However, though a punter calling an ad might indeed end up with the woman of his dreams as opposed to one who might once have appealed to Wayne Rooney, or worse still, looks like Rooney, between that punter and the bed sheets is usually a third-party; pimps of frequently overseas origin - Russian, Nigerian, South American. The anti-ad lobby argues that the ads represent a form of "slavery" for women caught up in the "industry" (and it might add, presumably, some men as well).
The government's move to initiate a ban comes against a background of what seems like a growing willingness on the behalf of the police to move against some so-called "relax" or "alternative" clubs; prostitution may not be illegal, but exploitation and trafficking are. And there is a further dimension to this - the potential link to organised crime.
In one respect, the adverts reflect a rather reassuringly un-PC element in local society, but it is what lies behind the ads that the government (and police) are right to take an interest in. The papers may not like a ban, but they are probably going to have to learn to live without the income that prostitute advertising brings them.
* I acknowledge the source of some of the above from "The Guardian" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/16/spain-sex-adverts-newspapers
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There is something of the bizarre about the pages of classifieds for call girls, "massage" and a smattering of rent boys that are to be found in mostly all newspapers locally. The two Spanish dailies in Mallorca have them, as do the nationals, including "El País", which "The Guardian" points out is of a similar left-leaning nature to itself and thus, you would think, in the PC category, and also "ABC", a paper with more than a hint of religious righteousness.
The government, though, is going to cause itself some problems. The newspaper proprietors are unlikely to take a ban lying down, either on their backs or in any other position you may care to imagine. "El País", for example, is a natural ally of the Zapatero government, which can do with all the support it can muster at the moment. There is also a view that banning such advertising would be a curb on free speech, which may be a legitimate argument were it not for the censorious nature of the media when it comes to anything to do with the royal family; overstep the mark and it will land a journalist, or a cartoonist, in the dock before a beak. If the press was wishing to seek a free-speech battleground, this might well be it, and not sleazy ads for well-endowed females.
The sheer volume of these ads can be overwhelming. How much sex can actually be sold? Not enough where the papers are concerned, which already derive significant revenues from the advertising. The papers are also at pains to point out that if the government wants to stop the ads, it should make prostitution illegal. But this argument begins to move into rather murkier territory. Were it the case that the ads were just being placed by some local slapper, then there wouldn't necessarily be much harm in it. However, though a punter calling an ad might indeed end up with the woman of his dreams as opposed to one who might once have appealed to Wayne Rooney, or worse still, looks like Rooney, between that punter and the bed sheets is usually a third-party; pimps of frequently overseas origin - Russian, Nigerian, South American. The anti-ad lobby argues that the ads represent a form of "slavery" for women caught up in the "industry" (and it might add, presumably, some men as well).
The government's move to initiate a ban comes against a background of what seems like a growing willingness on the behalf of the police to move against some so-called "relax" or "alternative" clubs; prostitution may not be illegal, but exploitation and trafficking are. And there is a further dimension to this - the potential link to organised crime.
In one respect, the adverts reflect a rather reassuringly un-PC element in local society, but it is what lies behind the ads that the government (and police) are right to take an interest in. The papers may not like a ban, but they are probably going to have to learn to live without the income that prostitute advertising brings them.
* I acknowledge the source of some of the above from "The Guardian" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/16/spain-sex-adverts-newspapers
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Going Up! Newspapers and the internet
"The Times" is set to end its free online service. It's a gamble, but for readers in places like Mallorca, who might otherwise pay an exorbitant price for the daily paper, two quid a week is extremely good value. Not that this is necessarily the point. Free should be free, say many, and a cover price for the online version will simply cause readers to go elsewhere. We'll see. The new site is actually pretty good.
The "Diario de Mallorca" is not "The Times", nothing like it of course. But there is something interesting about this paper. It has a good website - free - which has enjoyed increased traffic recently. At the same time, the printed version has also increased its circulation. Its main competitor, "Ultima Hora", has experienced a decline in circulation, and its website is not as good but is improving. Of daily papers in Spain with a circulation over 10,000 (not huge admittedly), the "Diario" has registered the second greatest increase in physical circulation among the 39 papers with circulation over this number.
On the face of it, the two increases seem illogical. As the website beefs up its traffic, so, you would think, the circulation of printed version would decrease. So how to explain the apparent contradiction, as evidenced by the "Diario"? Maybe it's all the free publicity I give it, but probably not. Perhaps it has something to do with its local nature. Despite the plans by "The Times" to create its own online "community", it is, like all big papers, rather removed. A paper like the "Diario" isn't. There is a far greater sense of reader "ownership" of the different formats; they are complementary, even if their content is basically the same.
I confess that I am casting around to find a reason. I don't know the answer. But answer there must be, and if the experience of the "Diario" is echoed elsewhere, the doomsday predictions for newspapers and/or their websites would not hold up. What will be interesting is whether the circulation and the site traffic continue to increase. If they do, then someone should try and discover the paper's secret. I should be at the paper's offices today, so maybe I'll ask.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for May 2010
All-inclusives - 6 May 2010, 12 May 2010
British election - 3 May 2010, 7 May 2010
Children's play garden, Sa Romana - 10 May 2010
Diario de Mallorca - 31 May 2010
Economic crisis gets worse - 25 May 2010
Economic diversification - 27 May 2010
Eroski queues and scales - 17 May 2010
Floods - 4 May 2010, 5 May 2010, 7 May 2010
Fraud operation based in Mallorca - 30 May 2010
Gay hotels - 8 May 2010
General strike - 30 May 2010
Holiday club and scratch cards - 21 May 2010, 30 May 2010
Hornblower Embroidery, Puerto Alcúdia - 15 May 2010
Jolly Roger - 9 May 2010
Match Point bar, Puerto Pollensa - 4 May 2010
Mulligans, Puerto Pollensa - 15 May 2010
Newspapers and the internet - 31 May 2010
Parking in Alcúdia - 12 May 2010
Phoning and personal communication - 11 May 2010
Prices - 13 May 2010
Protest in Puerto Pollensa - 26 May 2010, 29 May 2010
Public spending cuts in Spain - 14 May 2010
Rancho Ses Roques, Puerto Alcúdia - 20 May 2010
Sant Marti cave, Puerto Alcúdia - 20 May 2010
Season 2010 - 1 May 2010, 3 May 2010, 19 May 2010
Smoking ban - 18 May 2010
Telefonica - 28 May 2010
Tourism, opening hours & - 2 May 2010
Tourism problems - 11 May 2010
Tourism publications - 16 May 2010
Trip Advisor and review sites - 22 May 2010
Vandalism - 23 May 2010
The "Diario de Mallorca" is not "The Times", nothing like it of course. But there is something interesting about this paper. It has a good website - free - which has enjoyed increased traffic recently. At the same time, the printed version has also increased its circulation. Its main competitor, "Ultima Hora", has experienced a decline in circulation, and its website is not as good but is improving. Of daily papers in Spain with a circulation over 10,000 (not huge admittedly), the "Diario" has registered the second greatest increase in physical circulation among the 39 papers with circulation over this number.
On the face of it, the two increases seem illogical. As the website beefs up its traffic, so, you would think, the circulation of printed version would decrease. So how to explain the apparent contradiction, as evidenced by the "Diario"? Maybe it's all the free publicity I give it, but probably not. Perhaps it has something to do with its local nature. Despite the plans by "The Times" to create its own online "community", it is, like all big papers, rather removed. A paper like the "Diario" isn't. There is a far greater sense of reader "ownership" of the different formats; they are complementary, even if their content is basically the same.
I confess that I am casting around to find a reason. I don't know the answer. But answer there must be, and if the experience of the "Diario" is echoed elsewhere, the doomsday predictions for newspapers and/or their websites would not hold up. What will be interesting is whether the circulation and the site traffic continue to increase. If they do, then someone should try and discover the paper's secret. I should be at the paper's offices today, so maybe I'll ask.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for May 2010
All-inclusives - 6 May 2010, 12 May 2010
British election - 3 May 2010, 7 May 2010
Children's play garden, Sa Romana - 10 May 2010
Diario de Mallorca - 31 May 2010
Economic crisis gets worse - 25 May 2010
Economic diversification - 27 May 2010
Eroski queues and scales - 17 May 2010
Floods - 4 May 2010, 5 May 2010, 7 May 2010
Fraud operation based in Mallorca - 30 May 2010
Gay hotels - 8 May 2010
General strike - 30 May 2010
Holiday club and scratch cards - 21 May 2010, 30 May 2010
Hornblower Embroidery, Puerto Alcúdia - 15 May 2010
Jolly Roger - 9 May 2010
Match Point bar, Puerto Pollensa - 4 May 2010
Mulligans, Puerto Pollensa - 15 May 2010
Newspapers and the internet - 31 May 2010
Parking in Alcúdia - 12 May 2010
Phoning and personal communication - 11 May 2010
Prices - 13 May 2010
Protest in Puerto Pollensa - 26 May 2010, 29 May 2010
Public spending cuts in Spain - 14 May 2010
Rancho Ses Roques, Puerto Alcúdia - 20 May 2010
Sant Marti cave, Puerto Alcúdia - 20 May 2010
Season 2010 - 1 May 2010, 3 May 2010, 19 May 2010
Smoking ban - 18 May 2010
Telefonica - 28 May 2010
Tourism, opening hours & - 2 May 2010
Tourism problems - 11 May 2010
Tourism publications - 16 May 2010
Trip Advisor and review sites - 22 May 2010
Vandalism - 23 May 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Hot, Hot, Hot: Tourism publications
Over the past month or so on the blog, I have made reference to a newspaper-style tourism publication that I am due to be bringing out. It is close to seeing the light of day. The volcano and weather have conspired to slow things down a bit. Things are never easy, and I tend not to make things easy for myself. And not making things easy is probably apposite. I like making things difficult, creating a challenge.
Why do a newspaper format? Several reasons. Commercially, the most important is that far more copies can be printed for the same sort of money you have to hand over for something printed on art paper. Do a free publication and you stand or fall by advertising, and for advertisers as wide a distribution as possible is vital, unless you are dealing with a defined and small niche, which the tourism market is not.
But as important as this is the impact that can be created, one that also has benefits for the advertiser. And in the current climate, it seemed to me that something quite different was required. There are businesses locally which are really trying to be different. It has been salutary to speak to some of them and to get their support for attempting to be different, and these include those who are not advertisers. It matters not a jot to me so long as I get positive and constructive opinions rather than the negativity of which there is an abundance at present.
Tourism publications tend to be of a type. They tend to a conformism of certain information and style. It was this that I wanted to break away from. And moving away from the small format of guide that I have done till now gives far greater scope in terms of content. This is where it has not been easy. The creative side. It is hugely demanding of time and mental energy. Stick a map on a piece of paper and arrange some adverts around it? Where's the fun in that?
The new publication is to be called HOT. There have been seemingly innumerable other title possibilities. It was a chat with Nobby from Linekers which finally steered me in this direction. Not that Nobby came up with it. But it was his thought process that led me to do a personal brainstorm and come up with some ideas that I ran past Graeme at "Talk Of The North", with whom this is all a collaboration. One other title I liked was "Splash". It seemed appropriate in different ways, for example the notion of making a splash. But HOT it was - is. Only afterwards, as I looked at a blank page of Quark Express to consider the masthead, did it occur to me that HOT could be Holiday Times.
The format means that there is scope for all manner of articles that could never have been contemplated before. It is why, in addition to some of the more traditional information, there will be stuff on music, entertainment, history, oddities, fitness, kids' activities and more. What there will not be will be the sort of brochure talk that I have railed against here in the past. I detest it. It is too easy, and I cannot believe that anyone much is interested.
In the process of putting this altogether, there are a number of people who have given willingly of time and help and others who have made small observations and suggestions. They will all get name-checked when it appears, but to pick out a few - Jan at the Jolly Roger, Graham Philips, Glen and family, Jose and Julie at Nova Marina. They'll do for starters. Now all that remains is to finish it off and get the job to the printers over the next few days. Then I might get some sleep.
QUIZ (sort of) -
Yesterday I asked who Albert Pierrepoint was. The usual answer is the last hangman in Britain, but he wasn't. Albert, not necessarily a liberal in these matters, reckoned that Ruth Ellis got all that was coming to her. And Albert gave it to her - so to speak.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Why do a newspaper format? Several reasons. Commercially, the most important is that far more copies can be printed for the same sort of money you have to hand over for something printed on art paper. Do a free publication and you stand or fall by advertising, and for advertisers as wide a distribution as possible is vital, unless you are dealing with a defined and small niche, which the tourism market is not.
But as important as this is the impact that can be created, one that also has benefits for the advertiser. And in the current climate, it seemed to me that something quite different was required. There are businesses locally which are really trying to be different. It has been salutary to speak to some of them and to get their support for attempting to be different, and these include those who are not advertisers. It matters not a jot to me so long as I get positive and constructive opinions rather than the negativity of which there is an abundance at present.
Tourism publications tend to be of a type. They tend to a conformism of certain information and style. It was this that I wanted to break away from. And moving away from the small format of guide that I have done till now gives far greater scope in terms of content. This is where it has not been easy. The creative side. It is hugely demanding of time and mental energy. Stick a map on a piece of paper and arrange some adverts around it? Where's the fun in that?
The new publication is to be called HOT. There have been seemingly innumerable other title possibilities. It was a chat with Nobby from Linekers which finally steered me in this direction. Not that Nobby came up with it. But it was his thought process that led me to do a personal brainstorm and come up with some ideas that I ran past Graeme at "Talk Of The North", with whom this is all a collaboration. One other title I liked was "Splash". It seemed appropriate in different ways, for example the notion of making a splash. But HOT it was - is. Only afterwards, as I looked at a blank page of Quark Express to consider the masthead, did it occur to me that HOT could be Holiday Times.
The format means that there is scope for all manner of articles that could never have been contemplated before. It is why, in addition to some of the more traditional information, there will be stuff on music, entertainment, history, oddities, fitness, kids' activities and more. What there will not be will be the sort of brochure talk that I have railed against here in the past. I detest it. It is too easy, and I cannot believe that anyone much is interested.
In the process of putting this altogether, there are a number of people who have given willingly of time and help and others who have made small observations and suggestions. They will all get name-checked when it appears, but to pick out a few - Jan at the Jolly Roger, Graham Philips, Glen and family, Jose and Julie at Nova Marina. They'll do for starters. Now all that remains is to finish it off and get the job to the printers over the next few days. Then I might get some sleep.
QUIZ (sort of) -
Yesterday I asked who Albert Pierrepoint was. The usual answer is the last hangman in Britain, but he wasn't. Albert, not necessarily a liberal in these matters, reckoned that Ruth Ellis got all that was coming to her. And Albert gave it to her - so to speak.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
The Price You Pay: Little stickers and doner kebabs
The price you pay, otherwise known as part three of the end of tourism life, a recurring story of everyday despairing tourist-business folk.
The price you pay. It hasn't started yet, but it can't be far off. The "authorities must do something about it". I'm thinking that this should be the title of my new book, which I haven't written and which I haven't actually even thought about. But a good title, nonetheless. The price you pay. Take, for example, a newspaper.
Something, shrewd observers among you might have noticed, is that newspapers print prices on them. Different countries, different prices. Two euros for whatever, two euros it is, except when it isn't. Beware, therefore, the little yellow stickers or the little lime-green or pinky stickers. Ones with a price biro-ed on them. Because those two euros can very easily be joined by some ten centimos. The price you pay.
Remember the stuff about some sap complaining about having been fleeced of five euros for some paracetamol last year? It was evidence of Mallorca's too expensive, the authorities must, blah, blah. It was evidence of this, but it was evidence of something else, as it was illegal. You can only buy paracetamol in a chemists. Or rather, chemists are the only places licensed to sell paracetamol. It's a similar gig with newspapers. The price you pay, or should pay, is the one on the paper, not the one on the little sticker. It is illegal to sell a newspaper above the printed price.
The price you pay. Take also, for example, a bucket and spade. Lurking with intent on the Jolly Roger's pool-side terrace yesterday afternoon, I cocked an eager ear in the direction of a conversation which was taking place between two parties, conveniently some distance apart, which meant that they were more or less shouting and were thus easy to hear. One couple had handed over getting on for ten euros for some low-grade, brightly-coloured plastic items, the making of sandcastles being the purpose thereof. The other couple said, oh, we paid one euro, ninety-five. "They saw us coming," admitted couple one. Dead right they did. Couple one's bucket and spade had been purchased in a shop by the beach. "They've got you when you're there, haven't they," couple one reckoned, by way of justification. Up to a point, they have. But, as ever with these price things, go elsewhere and you will spend far less. Three-quarters less in the case of the lucky couple two.
Rather more in keeping with the current theme "de la semana", our end of tourism life one, news comes from The Mile, where one shop is reporting a 33% drop in sales, on top of a 20% overall decline last season. And in the more rarified atmosphere of Pollensa's villas, news there of villa bookings having slowed to a crawl, or worse. It's all the volcano's fault. The late-minute bookings seem not to be occurring, and yet it was these - and I had said as much myself here - that were set to make this season reasonable if not brilliant. Sod Iceland.
And finally ... A question for you. Why is that doner kebabs don't get advertised? As in, why is it that Indian restaurants, which double up as doner establishments, don't want any mention of kebabs? Maybe it's all to do with their marketing. Maybe they've stopped doing them. Or maybe there's some other reason. An Indian chap asked yesterday if I could remove the doner kebab from the sign in an advert. Yes, said I, not a problem. Yet, this is far from being the first occasion when I have experienced a reluctance to promote the doner. Why?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The price you pay. It hasn't started yet, but it can't be far off. The "authorities must do something about it". I'm thinking that this should be the title of my new book, which I haven't written and which I haven't actually even thought about. But a good title, nonetheless. The price you pay. Take, for example, a newspaper.
Something, shrewd observers among you might have noticed, is that newspapers print prices on them. Different countries, different prices. Two euros for whatever, two euros it is, except when it isn't. Beware, therefore, the little yellow stickers or the little lime-green or pinky stickers. Ones with a price biro-ed on them. Because those two euros can very easily be joined by some ten centimos. The price you pay.
Remember the stuff about some sap complaining about having been fleeced of five euros for some paracetamol last year? It was evidence of Mallorca's too expensive, the authorities must, blah, blah. It was evidence of this, but it was evidence of something else, as it was illegal. You can only buy paracetamol in a chemists. Or rather, chemists are the only places licensed to sell paracetamol. It's a similar gig with newspapers. The price you pay, or should pay, is the one on the paper, not the one on the little sticker. It is illegal to sell a newspaper above the printed price.
The price you pay. Take also, for example, a bucket and spade. Lurking with intent on the Jolly Roger's pool-side terrace yesterday afternoon, I cocked an eager ear in the direction of a conversation which was taking place between two parties, conveniently some distance apart, which meant that they were more or less shouting and were thus easy to hear. One couple had handed over getting on for ten euros for some low-grade, brightly-coloured plastic items, the making of sandcastles being the purpose thereof. The other couple said, oh, we paid one euro, ninety-five. "They saw us coming," admitted couple one. Dead right they did. Couple one's bucket and spade had been purchased in a shop by the beach. "They've got you when you're there, haven't they," couple one reckoned, by way of justification. Up to a point, they have. But, as ever with these price things, go elsewhere and you will spend far less. Three-quarters less in the case of the lucky couple two.
Rather more in keeping with the current theme "de la semana", our end of tourism life one, news comes from The Mile, where one shop is reporting a 33% drop in sales, on top of a 20% overall decline last season. And in the more rarified atmosphere of Pollensa's villas, news there of villa bookings having slowed to a crawl, or worse. It's all the volcano's fault. The late-minute bookings seem not to be occurring, and yet it was these - and I had said as much myself here - that were set to make this season reasonable if not brilliant. Sod Iceland.
And finally ... A question for you. Why is that doner kebabs don't get advertised? As in, why is it that Indian restaurants, which double up as doner establishments, don't want any mention of kebabs? Maybe it's all to do with their marketing. Maybe they've stopped doing them. Or maybe there's some other reason. An Indian chap asked yesterday if I could remove the doner kebab from the sign in an advert. Yes, said I, not a problem. Yet, this is far from being the first occasion when I have experienced a reluctance to promote the doner. Why?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, April 23, 2010
This Is My Four-Leaf Clover: Internet advertising
I find myself increasingly and variously intrigued and infuriated by internet advertising.
Let’s take the infuriation first, if we may: the invasive pop-ups or the things that somehow float across the screen or some video demanding to take me away from what it is I actually want to look at. I’ll give you a good example. The "Diario de Mallorca". Good paper and pretty good website. Better than its main Mallorca-based competitor, "Ultima Hora". It’s easier to navigate and is better laid-out. However, it has this regular tendency, once you’ve clicked on whatever it is you want to read, to take you to an advert - often for some Seat or Peugeot you have absolutely no interest in. This obliges you to either unclick it or wait till it goes away.
There does of course have to be advertising, which opens up the whole discussion about newspapers, their ad revenues from the web and whether they should be free online or not. But this is not something for here. There is advertising, which is a business necessity for a website to function, and there is advertising - of the intrusive variety. To what extent is this intrusive advertising counter-productive? Out of principle, I refuse to click on it, and only have done so by mistake. Out of principle, I would never buy a Seat, if it’s being forced onto me when I have something better to do, like reading about what shenanigans such-and-such a local politician has been up to. And when it takes an age to load a page because of the damn floating ads, or whatever they are, there is further counter-productivity. I go somewhere else. I may not like "Ultima Hora" as much, but it doesn’t hack me off.
You have to presume that this intrusion doesn’t come cheap and also to presume that it works, even if referrals may be a low percentage and actual conversion (assuming this can in fact be measured) far less. But the potential to alienate readers cannot be underestimated, and then there are those, like myself, who form a negative image of a brand because it’s getting my back up.
Web advertising is a curiosity because it is an experimental work-in-progress. Unlike TV advertising, the model of which has remained pretty much unaltered since the first days of commercial television (in the UK at any rate) in the mid-1950s, advertising on the net has been in a constant state of flux since it was first realised that here was the brave new world of promotional opportunity. The cost can be high, but it all depends what is being advertised and how. The "how" is arguably the most interesting aspect, especially since the inception of social networking. Facebook and the rest may not be for everyone, but its potential - cheap promotional potential - is significant.
In Alcudia there is a bar, Shamrock. Facebook has transformed not only the bar in terms of its income and profitability, it has transformed the bar completely - in terms of its market and product. Yes, there have been, and are, other promotional tactics, but it is Facebook that has driven the change. I’m not going into detail, this may be for another time or place, but if there is such a thing at Harvard Business School as case studies on the role of social networking in marketing, then Shamrock might well form one of them. To emphasise - not just greater success but also a change in the business itself, all stemming from Facebook. It’s fascinating stuff.
The essential ingredient with the Facebook approach is that it is a form of push marketing - or poke marketing if you prefer. It is proactive and can create a rapid response. But this proactivity isn’t aggressive, as with so much unwished-for promotion, because of the very nature of social networks and their built-in likemindedness. Moreover, Facebook is without pretension in its marketing style. Some advertisers, or so it has appeared to me, have a kudos mentality that demands they pay fairly substantial amounts to appear on a particularly grand site. This may be beneficial to them, or it may not be, but for many, a complementary approach using social networks would almost certainly be beneficial, if not more beneficial. It does rather depend on how broad the marketing scope needs to be and therefore how much the initial contact or interest via the internet needs to be made, which is where paid-for representation can be, and often is, important.
What we’re moving towards is businesses adopting a bundling approach, of different types of site, with different styles. The only fear with the likes of Facebook is that its success, and that of those who use it creatively, will result in the sort of intrusive advertising that can deter. I, for one, hope not.
QUIZ -
It doesn't have to have four leaves, but what the ... "This is my four-leaf clover." Where's it from? Great song. Great band - IMO.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Let’s take the infuriation first, if we may: the invasive pop-ups or the things that somehow float across the screen or some video demanding to take me away from what it is I actually want to look at. I’ll give you a good example. The "Diario de Mallorca". Good paper and pretty good website. Better than its main Mallorca-based competitor, "Ultima Hora". It’s easier to navigate and is better laid-out. However, it has this regular tendency, once you’ve clicked on whatever it is you want to read, to take you to an advert - often for some Seat or Peugeot you have absolutely no interest in. This obliges you to either unclick it or wait till it goes away.
There does of course have to be advertising, which opens up the whole discussion about newspapers, their ad revenues from the web and whether they should be free online or not. But this is not something for here. There is advertising, which is a business necessity for a website to function, and there is advertising - of the intrusive variety. To what extent is this intrusive advertising counter-productive? Out of principle, I refuse to click on it, and only have done so by mistake. Out of principle, I would never buy a Seat, if it’s being forced onto me when I have something better to do, like reading about what shenanigans such-and-such a local politician has been up to. And when it takes an age to load a page because of the damn floating ads, or whatever they are, there is further counter-productivity. I go somewhere else. I may not like "Ultima Hora" as much, but it doesn’t hack me off.
You have to presume that this intrusion doesn’t come cheap and also to presume that it works, even if referrals may be a low percentage and actual conversion (assuming this can in fact be measured) far less. But the potential to alienate readers cannot be underestimated, and then there are those, like myself, who form a negative image of a brand because it’s getting my back up.
Web advertising is a curiosity because it is an experimental work-in-progress. Unlike TV advertising, the model of which has remained pretty much unaltered since the first days of commercial television (in the UK at any rate) in the mid-1950s, advertising on the net has been in a constant state of flux since it was first realised that here was the brave new world of promotional opportunity. The cost can be high, but it all depends what is being advertised and how. The "how" is arguably the most interesting aspect, especially since the inception of social networking. Facebook and the rest may not be for everyone, but its potential - cheap promotional potential - is significant.
In Alcudia there is a bar, Shamrock. Facebook has transformed not only the bar in terms of its income and profitability, it has transformed the bar completely - in terms of its market and product. Yes, there have been, and are, other promotional tactics, but it is Facebook that has driven the change. I’m not going into detail, this may be for another time or place, but if there is such a thing at Harvard Business School as case studies on the role of social networking in marketing, then Shamrock might well form one of them. To emphasise - not just greater success but also a change in the business itself, all stemming from Facebook. It’s fascinating stuff.
The essential ingredient with the Facebook approach is that it is a form of push marketing - or poke marketing if you prefer. It is proactive and can create a rapid response. But this proactivity isn’t aggressive, as with so much unwished-for promotion, because of the very nature of social networks and their built-in likemindedness. Moreover, Facebook is without pretension in its marketing style. Some advertisers, or so it has appeared to me, have a kudos mentality that demands they pay fairly substantial amounts to appear on a particularly grand site. This may be beneficial to them, or it may not be, but for many, a complementary approach using social networks would almost certainly be beneficial, if not more beneficial. It does rather depend on how broad the marketing scope needs to be and therefore how much the initial contact or interest via the internet needs to be made, which is where paid-for representation can be, and often is, important.
What we’re moving towards is businesses adopting a bundling approach, of different types of site, with different styles. The only fear with the likes of Facebook is that its success, and that of those who use it creatively, will result in the sort of intrusive advertising that can deter. I, for one, hope not.
QUIZ -
It doesn't have to have four leaves, but what the ... "This is my four-leaf clover." Where's it from? Great song. Great band - IMO.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Just Another Day - tourism scene and corruption
Here's a potentially useful addition to the coverage in "The Bulletin" - a regular thing on tourism. You might wonder why there hasn't been such a column before. If you haven't wondered, I most certainly have. Amidst the pages of questionable relevance and of British and international politics, there are few that actually deal with issues of direct relevance to Mallorca. Tourism is not exactly irrelevant. But now there is a column, of sorts. It is in the form of an interview with the paper's tame tour operator chappie, the guy from the Co-Op-Monarch-Cosmos group. The first one is not uninteresting, albeit that it says much that is fairly obvious or known.
The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.
To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The same chap was recently reported in the paper as saying that bookings to Mallorca were down by some 15%. At the time (25 January: I'm Anti, Fly Me), I questioned whether this would continue to prove to be the case, and continue to prove it has not - the current fall is around half that figure, while - in all likelihood - there will ultimately prove to be no fall and possibly even a slight increase. It isn't really tourist industry rocket science to suggest that there will be later bookings that contribute to a reasonable, if not spectacular, tourism season. The Turkish situation is an interesting aspect that will play a part in this. There is under-supply in Turkey and, just as importantly, prices have gone up there. I read on a forum someone saying that prices were "outrageous"; that person was looking for a villa in Mallorca as an alternative. Something that may have escaped many of the doom-mongers is the enduring strength of the Mallorca brand and product, despite the tourism authorities' best attempts at trying to undermine it or to not promote it adequately. One thing the tour operators know is that they can get that supply, which they cannot necessarily obtain elsewhere.
To have a regular feature is a good enough idea; to give some facts is a good enough idea. To have an industry insider supplying the information is also a good enough idea, but it is only one insider and one who represents a specific company. Inevitably, there might be a bit of a "take" on matters that are - how should one say it - skewed towards that company. But don't let me get too critical. It is a useful addition, but even more so would be a real feature or column, one that takes the insider information and forms a discussion, one that might be - dare I say it - rather more journalistic. Heaven knows, there is enough cracking off in the island's tourism industry to fill a paper, let alone just one page. And, slightly tangential but still within the industry orbit, comes the oh-no-not-more-of-it moment. Corruption. This time it is Inestur. Which is? The Balearics institute for tourism strategy, an institute within the ambit of the regional government's ministry of tourism. An investigation is now under way into this institute. The facts are not yet clear, nor is it clear if any alleged corruption refers to the current ministry administration - under the Unió Mallorquina party - or the previous one of the Partido Popular. It hardly seems to matter any longer. Just another day in Mallorca. Another day, another corruption allegation. And this time, tourism's in the front line. Regular feature. Yep. The daily scandal feature.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Riders On The Storm", The Doors, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKbPUzhWeeI. Today's title: could be a few, but this one - Cuban-American - had a gold seller with "Just Another Day".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Filthy English - Standards of English in Mallorca
Harking back to that report into standards of English among students at Palma's university, there was a comment piece in yesterday's "Diario" which drew attention to the apparent contradictions in the report. These concerned the fact that, for example, two-thirds of students said they did not understand English, yet 50% spoke it.
Standards of English in Mallorca are not high. They should be higher: not to give British residents even more of an excuse not to learn Spanish or Catalan, but to be pragmatic in recognising the importance of the language where tourism is concerned. Pragmatism. A word that crops up time and time again whenever language is discussed, yet one widely ignored by the Mallorcans. Whereas the non-pragmatism of the Castilian versus Catalan debate is granted much attention and emotion, insufficient attention has been given to the learning of international languages, especially English. It is an historical failing, one of inadequate education, and one that is only now being given anything like the attention demanded.
However, for all that English is not as good as might be hoped, one should spare a thought for the locals, confronted by English in all its different manifestations - regional accents, idioms, slang, changing usage and the simply wrong. Pity the poor receptionist or waiter who has to decipher Geordie, Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, Ooh-Arr, the English of the Northern Irish, Southern Irish, Scots, Welsh, to say nothing of mangled English by other nationalities. If you can do Spanish, then try making sense of different accents or dialects. Ever had to listen to Argentinians? Impossible. Despite the apparent contradictions referred to above, it is generally the case that one can speak a language but have difficulty understanding it when spoken to. Take another language - German. If you do this, you may find it easy to understand someone who speaks "hochdeutsch", only to then try and fathom out a Franconian dialect replete with an accent that sounds as though the speaker has an entire potato field stuffed into his gob - rather like many Mallorcans.
No-one much speaks English any longer. Not English as in the Queen's English or a long-past BBC English. They speak street English, football English, soap English, estuary English. They apply the infinite variables of internationalised English, of English in all its flexibility. They speak mingin' English, innit, English that's so not English - alrahht. They speak a corrupt English, a filthy English of a low-lifed anti-vocabulary.
And it is not just spoken English. In the same report into standards, 68% of students said that they could read English. The question is, what sort? Take newspapers, the broadsheets for instance. Generally speaking - as it were - these will contain "high" English. It's the same with Spanish newspapers, the quality end at any rate. In their pages, one is likely to encounter a formal style of Spanish, one quite removed from much everyday usage and typified by a preponderance of the different subjunctive forms that exist in Spanish. No-one actually speaks like that, or very few do.
Then there are other newspapers and other forms of English. A couple of days ago, along with Graeme and Aimee from "Talk Of The North" and auntie Susan, I was trying to make sense of "Lashlish", the unique style adopted by a certain columnist in "The Bulletin". The paper does, I seem to recall, get used in English teaching locally. We come back to those receptionists or waiters, those who may be presented with:
"True or false? - In the daily sent "Majorca Daily Bulletin" is to find Cynthia Lennon as this is on this celebrated Majorca one long standing celebrity writer most talented."
I've made that last "sentence" up (sort of), in case you're wondering.
"Inglich not espouken" was the title of the piece in "The Diario". Let's not be too harsh on the students or on any Mallorcan whose standard of English is low. If native speakers can't "espouke" it, then what the hell chance have the locals got.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Round The Horne", Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick. The wooden horse was Margaret Thatcher on "Desert Island Discs". Today: which author and journalist - one who, when not low-lifing, writes in a higher form of English - wrote "Filthy English"?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Standards of English in Mallorca are not high. They should be higher: not to give British residents even more of an excuse not to learn Spanish or Catalan, but to be pragmatic in recognising the importance of the language where tourism is concerned. Pragmatism. A word that crops up time and time again whenever language is discussed, yet one widely ignored by the Mallorcans. Whereas the non-pragmatism of the Castilian versus Catalan debate is granted much attention and emotion, insufficient attention has been given to the learning of international languages, especially English. It is an historical failing, one of inadequate education, and one that is only now being given anything like the attention demanded.
However, for all that English is not as good as might be hoped, one should spare a thought for the locals, confronted by English in all its different manifestations - regional accents, idioms, slang, changing usage and the simply wrong. Pity the poor receptionist or waiter who has to decipher Geordie, Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, Ooh-Arr, the English of the Northern Irish, Southern Irish, Scots, Welsh, to say nothing of mangled English by other nationalities. If you can do Spanish, then try making sense of different accents or dialects. Ever had to listen to Argentinians? Impossible. Despite the apparent contradictions referred to above, it is generally the case that one can speak a language but have difficulty understanding it when spoken to. Take another language - German. If you do this, you may find it easy to understand someone who speaks "hochdeutsch", only to then try and fathom out a Franconian dialect replete with an accent that sounds as though the speaker has an entire potato field stuffed into his gob - rather like many Mallorcans.
No-one much speaks English any longer. Not English as in the Queen's English or a long-past BBC English. They speak street English, football English, soap English, estuary English. They apply the infinite variables of internationalised English, of English in all its flexibility. They speak mingin' English, innit, English that's so not English - alrahht. They speak a corrupt English, a filthy English of a low-lifed anti-vocabulary.
And it is not just spoken English. In the same report into standards, 68% of students said that they could read English. The question is, what sort? Take newspapers, the broadsheets for instance. Generally speaking - as it were - these will contain "high" English. It's the same with Spanish newspapers, the quality end at any rate. In their pages, one is likely to encounter a formal style of Spanish, one quite removed from much everyday usage and typified by a preponderance of the different subjunctive forms that exist in Spanish. No-one actually speaks like that, or very few do.
Then there are other newspapers and other forms of English. A couple of days ago, along with Graeme and Aimee from "Talk Of The North" and auntie Susan, I was trying to make sense of "Lashlish", the unique style adopted by a certain columnist in "The Bulletin". The paper does, I seem to recall, get used in English teaching locally. We come back to those receptionists or waiters, those who may be presented with:
"True or false? - In the daily sent "Majorca Daily Bulletin" is to find Cynthia Lennon as this is on this celebrated Majorca one long standing celebrity writer most talented."
I've made that last "sentence" up (sort of), in case you're wondering.
"Inglich not espouken" was the title of the piece in "The Diario". Let's not be too harsh on the students or on any Mallorcan whose standard of English is low. If native speakers can't "espouke" it, then what the hell chance have the locals got.
QUIZ
Yesterday: "Round The Horne", Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick. The wooden horse was Margaret Thatcher on "Desert Island Discs". Today: which author and journalist - one who, when not low-lifing, writes in a higher form of English - wrote "Filthy English"?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Starting Over
Today marks the blog's fourth anniversary - the first archives are no longer online, but they are still there, somewhere, on a disc. It is also two years and one month since the blog became a daily occurrence, save for the occasional planned or unplanned absence.
There are certain questions that you raise - what actually is the blog, how do I find the time, where do I get the "inspiration" to write something every day. Of these, the second is probably the easiest to answer. I just do. Rarely does it take a huge amount of time. What can is redrafting pieces and sometimes junking those I'm not satisfied with and starting over. I've started this piece more than once. The third is also quite easy. It boils down to being open to any sort of tag or lead, be it from the media (of all sorts), what someone says, what one observes. There is no shortage of "inspiration", so long as one keeps eyes and ears wide open.
The first question is the most difficult. Blogs vary in their style and purpose. Originally, many were in effect diaries. And that was pretty much how this one started out. But it has moved on, a long way from that original concept. What it is not, and has never set out or claimed to be, is a news service. That there may be news is generally the starting-point for something broader. But to give an exact definition is hard.
Much of what appears on the internet as personal contributions has found its voice through not only blogs but also social networks and now also Twitter. Defining any of them is not straightforward. Indeed one of the people behind Twitter told "Wired Magazine" recently that "I don't know" would be one of the ways he would define it. In other words, these vehicles emerge and are shaped by those who make use of them. It is the very looseness of purpose that is appealing and stimulating but also unfocussed and potentially dangerous. And by dangerous, I mean a tendency to vilification and vendetta. Blogs, social networks, Twitter are all means of expression and of self-publishing. They should all be approached with responsibility. Unfortunately, this is not always so. Publish and be damned? No. Publish and damn someone or something has become the principle.
But two words above tend to give a meaning as to what happens on this blog - looseness and the opposite of "unfocussed", i.e. focussed. These may seem contradictory, but there is looseness in the sense that subject matter is broad while focussed within a context, one of Mallorca and Spain. If one trawls through October's entries alone, there were few specific main features about Alcúdia or Pollensa. But as it says on the tin, the blog is not just about Alcúdia or Pollensa; the focus, the angle is wider. And the subject matters are equally wide - from abortion and smoking to football and the Olympics, but all within a Spanish if not a Mallorcan context.
In this respect, the blog is largely a series of observations - of society, politics, people, places and more. And one situates Alcúdia and Pollensa within a broader framework of these disparate elements. It is, for example, impossible to have an appreciation of local politics without some nod in the direction of what went before, no more so than the Franco period, and of the current politics of language.
More than this, however, I have come to realise that the blog is, to a great extent, a reaction against not only the lameness of much writing about Mallorca but also its sheer absence. To explain. There have been two recent stories - the BNP and Stephen Gately. I considered both of them, but apart from the fact that Gately just so happened to die in Mallorca, there was no obvious Mallorcan or Spanish angle. Why do them? In fact, I have a not uninteresting story about the BNP, one that I have outlined to more than one of you in an email, but I couldn't justify it as a blog story.
Yet both these stories have been given a good airing in the English-speaking press, as do, of course, all sorts of stories that have nothing to do with Mallorca or Spain. I don't criticise this as such, but what I do question is an over-abundance of British and international news and comment at the expense of the innumerable stories that exist either on the island or in the country. In this, there is an additional problem, and it is one of credibility. While I will take note of what a Simon Jenkins, a Matthew Parris or even a Richard Littlejohn might have to say about British politics, why should I take any notice of what someone living in Palma or Calvia might have to say? They are not credible witnesses because they are removed. Their contributions are the hard-copy equivalent of a blogger who wants to get something off his or her chest. In their physical, newsprint guise, they fill space to no great effect, other than as testimony to egoism.
It is this further realisation that draws me to conclude that there is little or no future for the hard-copy English press in Mallorca. The essentially regurgitated nature of British/international news and comment can be found on the internet, as can the primary contributions of Jenkins and the rest. The lack of a more local focus may indeed be better served away from the traditional press and tackled via blogs and the like. The newspaper has become simply a means of packaging or as a promotional tool for it in a different form or for advertisers. The real stories are to be found elsewhere.
I shall press on, but may soon be starting over ... watch out.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - P.J. Harvey and Thom Yorke, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99k8w65v3_I. Today's title - and this was?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
There are certain questions that you raise - what actually is the blog, how do I find the time, where do I get the "inspiration" to write something every day. Of these, the second is probably the easiest to answer. I just do. Rarely does it take a huge amount of time. What can is redrafting pieces and sometimes junking those I'm not satisfied with and starting over. I've started this piece more than once. The third is also quite easy. It boils down to being open to any sort of tag or lead, be it from the media (of all sorts), what someone says, what one observes. There is no shortage of "inspiration", so long as one keeps eyes and ears wide open.
The first question is the most difficult. Blogs vary in their style and purpose. Originally, many were in effect diaries. And that was pretty much how this one started out. But it has moved on, a long way from that original concept. What it is not, and has never set out or claimed to be, is a news service. That there may be news is generally the starting-point for something broader. But to give an exact definition is hard.
Much of what appears on the internet as personal contributions has found its voice through not only blogs but also social networks and now also Twitter. Defining any of them is not straightforward. Indeed one of the people behind Twitter told "Wired Magazine" recently that "I don't know" would be one of the ways he would define it. In other words, these vehicles emerge and are shaped by those who make use of them. It is the very looseness of purpose that is appealing and stimulating but also unfocussed and potentially dangerous. And by dangerous, I mean a tendency to vilification and vendetta. Blogs, social networks, Twitter are all means of expression and of self-publishing. They should all be approached with responsibility. Unfortunately, this is not always so. Publish and be damned? No. Publish and damn someone or something has become the principle.
But two words above tend to give a meaning as to what happens on this blog - looseness and the opposite of "unfocussed", i.e. focussed. These may seem contradictory, but there is looseness in the sense that subject matter is broad while focussed within a context, one of Mallorca and Spain. If one trawls through October's entries alone, there were few specific main features about Alcúdia or Pollensa. But as it says on the tin, the blog is not just about Alcúdia or Pollensa; the focus, the angle is wider. And the subject matters are equally wide - from abortion and smoking to football and the Olympics, but all within a Spanish if not a Mallorcan context.
In this respect, the blog is largely a series of observations - of society, politics, people, places and more. And one situates Alcúdia and Pollensa within a broader framework of these disparate elements. It is, for example, impossible to have an appreciation of local politics without some nod in the direction of what went before, no more so than the Franco period, and of the current politics of language.
More than this, however, I have come to realise that the blog is, to a great extent, a reaction against not only the lameness of much writing about Mallorca but also its sheer absence. To explain. There have been two recent stories - the BNP and Stephen Gately. I considered both of them, but apart from the fact that Gately just so happened to die in Mallorca, there was no obvious Mallorcan or Spanish angle. Why do them? In fact, I have a not uninteresting story about the BNP, one that I have outlined to more than one of you in an email, but I couldn't justify it as a blog story.
Yet both these stories have been given a good airing in the English-speaking press, as do, of course, all sorts of stories that have nothing to do with Mallorca or Spain. I don't criticise this as such, but what I do question is an over-abundance of British and international news and comment at the expense of the innumerable stories that exist either on the island or in the country. In this, there is an additional problem, and it is one of credibility. While I will take note of what a Simon Jenkins, a Matthew Parris or even a Richard Littlejohn might have to say about British politics, why should I take any notice of what someone living in Palma or Calvia might have to say? They are not credible witnesses because they are removed. Their contributions are the hard-copy equivalent of a blogger who wants to get something off his or her chest. In their physical, newsprint guise, they fill space to no great effect, other than as testimony to egoism.
It is this further realisation that draws me to conclude that there is little or no future for the hard-copy English press in Mallorca. The essentially regurgitated nature of British/international news and comment can be found on the internet, as can the primary contributions of Jenkins and the rest. The lack of a more local focus may indeed be better served away from the traditional press and tackled via blogs and the like. The newspaper has become simply a means of packaging or as a promotional tool for it in a different form or for advertisers. The real stories are to be found elsewhere.
I shall press on, but may soon be starting over ... watch out.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - P.J. Harvey and Thom Yorke, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99k8w65v3_I. Today's title - and this was?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Set Me Free
Astute observers amongst you might have noticed that I do, from time to time, make reference to the "Diario de Mallorca". To be more accurate, it is to the paper's website, a well-designed, well-archived facility, the only irritant of which is an occasional tendency towards intrusive adverts for the likes of SEAT. The "Diario" has been blowing its own internet trumpet, revealing traffic figures which would seem to establish the newspaper's site as the premier (Spanish) news site on the island, itself not a hugely difficult task, given the small number of competitors, but an achievement nonetheless. The paper would appear to have made the announcement at least in part as a response to a claim - "fictitious", it says - by the Balearics part of the "El Mundo" site that it was the leader in terms of visits etc., a claim rebutted by OJDinteractiva, the online tracking version of the OJD press circulation audit body.
The figures show, for instance, that the "Diario" claimed over 350,000 unique visitors in August, a number boosted to some extent by those following the news of the bombs. The degree, of course, to which anyone much of a non-Spanish background uses the site I wouldn't know, and nor presumably do they, except by geographical location, which, in itself, wouldn't mean a lot.
One of the things the "Diario" has going for it, in its internet incarnation, is a pleasing enough design and appearance. Compare this with, for example, the site for "Ultima Hora" and also "The Bulletin" (the same stable as "Ultima Hora"), and there isn't really a comparison. The "Diario" is the premier site, not just in terms of appearance but also content, far outstripping "El Mundo" for local news.
Good though the site is, it is, like most newspapers' websites, just a digital version of the actual paper. The site clearly comes into its own at times of breaking news, such as with the bombs (as do other media sites), but the volume of traffic is not, in itself, necessarily a cause for massive celebration. As with other newspapers, the "Diario" faces the same challenge of generating revenues from something that is free-to-air, so to speak. Of the 350,000 unique visitors in a month (the average daily circulation of the paper is around 22,500 - OJD audit), a question is, how many of those visitors also see the newspaper or only go to the site, and as importantly how many of them take any notice of the ads. You can't always avoid them, but click them away as quickly as you can physically move the cursor. There are ways and means of evaluating effectiveness of advertising via the internet, which are far more robust than many for print, but quoting numbers of visitors demonstrates potential and little more. This said, it is evident that advertisers with the budgets to do so are investing increasing amounts in techniques to evaluate internet advertising effectiveness, diverting these budgets from more traditional channels, be they print, radio, television or direct.
The good news for the newspapers should be that advertisers are willing to make such investments, but a further question is - and has been since the internet really took off - how to be viable financially and to offer excellent copy if there is no cover charge. They have made a rod for their own back by being free in the expectation that ad revenues would roll in. With the exception of mixed-model sites like the "Financial Times", newspapers are free and where they are slimmed-down versions of the actual paper - as with "The Bulletin" - they are barely worth the effort. Newspapers cannot avoid the internet, but once the free genie was let out of the lamp can it be put back in again? News International, for one, believes that it can be, but will others follow? Only perhaps by differentiating the content of the print and online versions can such a policy succeed.
The internet has the power to subvert, in many ways, and one is to disrupt the normal business process of customer purchasing. The democracy of the internet has largely demanded that stuff be free. It's a lousy model if it undermines, for example, journalistic integrity and investigation for which there is a resultant insufficient funding. In the same way as file-sharing has attacked the returns of record companies and artists, so free-to-air newspapers threaten to attack good journalism and therefore good newspapers. The analogy, though, is not strong. The newspapers have sanctioned the free use.
I see no reason why one shouldn't pay. To cite another example - the BBC. Overseas, notwithstanding streaming for sport that cannot always be obtained, the BBC is free. No licence fee. Why don't they charge? Yet even here, it would be a case of charging for something that already exists, despite innovation that makes it one of the best of all websites. And it is in innovation that the future lies, as does the possibility for generating new or additional revenue streams. But this comes back to those figures - the ones for visitors and so on. As soon as a charge is made and therefore a password needed, Google cannot set its robots to work. Bingo, the rankings optimisation goes to pot, or even to bot. A challenge is to work around the Google tyranny and the misguided notion that numbers of visitors is the be all and end all. It isn't. Content is. It so happens that the "Diario" wins on both counts. But so long as the branding is strong, and most newspapers benefit from this, then the opportunity exists to create niches of content and therefore readerships within the framework of the newspaper and its website. And to charge, regardless of what Google might have to say in its rankings.
I could go on. It's a huge subject, and one that I am involved with in working up something new - of which more at some point in the future no doubt. Meantime, I shall continue to visit the "Diario" and add to its traffic numbers. Also meantime, I will pay not a centimo for the privilege and nor will I take any notice of the adverts.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bros, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szWkAaD00j0. Today's title - presses are set and people want everything for free; who was this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The figures show, for instance, that the "Diario" claimed over 350,000 unique visitors in August, a number boosted to some extent by those following the news of the bombs. The degree, of course, to which anyone much of a non-Spanish background uses the site I wouldn't know, and nor presumably do they, except by geographical location, which, in itself, wouldn't mean a lot.
One of the things the "Diario" has going for it, in its internet incarnation, is a pleasing enough design and appearance. Compare this with, for example, the site for "Ultima Hora" and also "The Bulletin" (the same stable as "Ultima Hora"), and there isn't really a comparison. The "Diario" is the premier site, not just in terms of appearance but also content, far outstripping "El Mundo" for local news.
Good though the site is, it is, like most newspapers' websites, just a digital version of the actual paper. The site clearly comes into its own at times of breaking news, such as with the bombs (as do other media sites), but the volume of traffic is not, in itself, necessarily a cause for massive celebration. As with other newspapers, the "Diario" faces the same challenge of generating revenues from something that is free-to-air, so to speak. Of the 350,000 unique visitors in a month (the average daily circulation of the paper is around 22,500 - OJD audit), a question is, how many of those visitors also see the newspaper or only go to the site, and as importantly how many of them take any notice of the ads. You can't always avoid them, but click them away as quickly as you can physically move the cursor. There are ways and means of evaluating effectiveness of advertising via the internet, which are far more robust than many for print, but quoting numbers of visitors demonstrates potential and little more. This said, it is evident that advertisers with the budgets to do so are investing increasing amounts in techniques to evaluate internet advertising effectiveness, diverting these budgets from more traditional channels, be they print, radio, television or direct.
The good news for the newspapers should be that advertisers are willing to make such investments, but a further question is - and has been since the internet really took off - how to be viable financially and to offer excellent copy if there is no cover charge. They have made a rod for their own back by being free in the expectation that ad revenues would roll in. With the exception of mixed-model sites like the "Financial Times", newspapers are free and where they are slimmed-down versions of the actual paper - as with "The Bulletin" - they are barely worth the effort. Newspapers cannot avoid the internet, but once the free genie was let out of the lamp can it be put back in again? News International, for one, believes that it can be, but will others follow? Only perhaps by differentiating the content of the print and online versions can such a policy succeed.
The internet has the power to subvert, in many ways, and one is to disrupt the normal business process of customer purchasing. The democracy of the internet has largely demanded that stuff be free. It's a lousy model if it undermines, for example, journalistic integrity and investigation for which there is a resultant insufficient funding. In the same way as file-sharing has attacked the returns of record companies and artists, so free-to-air newspapers threaten to attack good journalism and therefore good newspapers. The analogy, though, is not strong. The newspapers have sanctioned the free use.
I see no reason why one shouldn't pay. To cite another example - the BBC. Overseas, notwithstanding streaming for sport that cannot always be obtained, the BBC is free. No licence fee. Why don't they charge? Yet even here, it would be a case of charging for something that already exists, despite innovation that makes it one of the best of all websites. And it is in innovation that the future lies, as does the possibility for generating new or additional revenue streams. But this comes back to those figures - the ones for visitors and so on. As soon as a charge is made and therefore a password needed, Google cannot set its robots to work. Bingo, the rankings optimisation goes to pot, or even to bot. A challenge is to work around the Google tyranny and the misguided notion that numbers of visitors is the be all and end all. It isn't. Content is. It so happens that the "Diario" wins on both counts. But so long as the branding is strong, and most newspapers benefit from this, then the opportunity exists to create niches of content and therefore readerships within the framework of the newspaper and its website. And to charge, regardless of what Google might have to say in its rankings.
I could go on. It's a huge subject, and one that I am involved with in working up something new - of which more at some point in the future no doubt. Meantime, I shall continue to visit the "Diario" and add to its traffic numbers. Also meantime, I will pay not a centimo for the privilege and nor will I take any notice of the adverts.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bros, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szWkAaD00j0. Today's title - presses are set and people want everything for free; who was this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, July 13, 2009
Michael Row The Boat Ashore
The Unió Mallorquina party has a new leader. Again. Some eighteen months since the last one came in, in comes the latest new one - Miquel Àngel Flaquer who replaces another Miquel, Nadal of that name. Flaquer has promised that the past two years of instability in the party will now be put behind them. There is not just a sense of déjà vu about the election of a new leader, it exists also in that Nadal said much the same thing when he assumed the leadership. Flaquer had some words for Nadal, suggesting that he had used the party as a "personal instrument". There will be a resumption of "munarismo" in the party, a reference to the matriarch of the UM, María Antonia Munar, now the president of the Balearic parliament and former president of the party. She was a founder of the party in 1982 and now looms over it in Thatcherite fashion, ready to handbag anyone who steps out of line. The leaders of the UM benefit from her patronage. Nadal was one; he was very much Munar's boy when the last election was held. Not that it got him very far - well about eighteen months.
The fractious nature of the UM was in evidence prior to Nadal's elevation. At one point during the leadership battle that he won, he actually took his bat home and withdrew his candidature, only to come back with the Munar handbag of approval and trounce both Alcúdia's mayor Miquel Ferrer, who rictus-grinned through his gap-toothed smile having lost, and Miquel Grimalt, he of the notorious "Decreto Grimalt", now the environment minister. All these Miquels - all these Michaels rowing the boat ashore into the rocks of political turmoil. Maybe now there is a Micky who will steady the ship. You wouldn't really bet on it. But the UM does need to be stable. It does, after all, form part of the coalition that governs the islands, if govern is quite the right word - Nadal is also in a position of some importance as tourism minister.
As always, or seemingly as always, there was something a bit odd about the reporting of all this. Flaquer also had some words for the current state of Spanish politics, dominated, as it is, by the ruling PSOE and the Partido Popular. It fell, as all too frequently, to "The Bulletin" to provide the oddness. It referred to the PSOE as the National Socialists. Yep, the "n" and the "s" were capitalised. For anyone who might be a tad concerned, the PSOE is not a Nazi party. What should have been said was something along the lines of the nationwide socialist party - national socialists most certainly not.
Finally on the UM, just as a reminder, it was the matriarch Munar who once complained about the "invasion of foreigners" into Mallorca. So, if you happen to be foreign and are planning an invasion, just bear in mind that María and her party are not among your greatest fans.
And coming back to our favourite newspaper. What exactly are we to make of its propaganda for the Calvia bar association and this association for "Europeans", which now seems to be called "Europeos por España"? (It probably always was called that, just that it was reported wrongly as "Europa" rather than "España.) Once more, this propaganda appears in the Calvia section. The first understandably so, but the latter? But more importantly, are we to conclude that newspapers locally are mere vehicles for whatever association wants to publicise itself? Maybe we should. There was a very revealing interview in yesterday's issue with a journalist from the Bulletin's sister paper "Ultima Hora" who is due to retire next year. He said, inter alia, that journalism is "not about typing press releases". How right he is. And if you really must, you can google and discover that there is a website for this esteemed European association. And no, I'm not giving out the address; what do you think this is, a propaganda exercise?
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Chris Isaak, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4KHqg_gq4s. Today's title - take your pick with this one.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The fractious nature of the UM was in evidence prior to Nadal's elevation. At one point during the leadership battle that he won, he actually took his bat home and withdrew his candidature, only to come back with the Munar handbag of approval and trounce both Alcúdia's mayor Miquel Ferrer, who rictus-grinned through his gap-toothed smile having lost, and Miquel Grimalt, he of the notorious "Decreto Grimalt", now the environment minister. All these Miquels - all these Michaels rowing the boat ashore into the rocks of political turmoil. Maybe now there is a Micky who will steady the ship. You wouldn't really bet on it. But the UM does need to be stable. It does, after all, form part of the coalition that governs the islands, if govern is quite the right word - Nadal is also in a position of some importance as tourism minister.
As always, or seemingly as always, there was something a bit odd about the reporting of all this. Flaquer also had some words for the current state of Spanish politics, dominated, as it is, by the ruling PSOE and the Partido Popular. It fell, as all too frequently, to "The Bulletin" to provide the oddness. It referred to the PSOE as the National Socialists. Yep, the "n" and the "s" were capitalised. For anyone who might be a tad concerned, the PSOE is not a Nazi party. What should have been said was something along the lines of the nationwide socialist party - national socialists most certainly not.
Finally on the UM, just as a reminder, it was the matriarch Munar who once complained about the "invasion of foreigners" into Mallorca. So, if you happen to be foreign and are planning an invasion, just bear in mind that María and her party are not among your greatest fans.
And coming back to our favourite newspaper. What exactly are we to make of its propaganda for the Calvia bar association and this association for "Europeans", which now seems to be called "Europeos por España"? (It probably always was called that, just that it was reported wrongly as "Europa" rather than "España.) Once more, this propaganda appears in the Calvia section. The first understandably so, but the latter? But more importantly, are we to conclude that newspapers locally are mere vehicles for whatever association wants to publicise itself? Maybe we should. There was a very revealing interview in yesterday's issue with a journalist from the Bulletin's sister paper "Ultima Hora" who is due to retire next year. He said, inter alia, that journalism is "not about typing press releases". How right he is. And if you really must, you can google and discover that there is a website for this esteemed European association. And no, I'm not giving out the address; what do you think this is, a propaganda exercise?
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Chris Isaak, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4KHqg_gq4s. Today's title - take your pick with this one.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, June 26, 2009
John, I'm Only Debating
Are you bothered that John Bercow is the new Speaker of the House of Commons? If you live in the UK and/or are a student of politics, then probably you are. But if you live somewhere else, let's say Mallorca for example, unless you are that student of politics, are you really that bothered? To the extent, that is, that the subject has been written up by the local press, i.e. "The Bulletin", and has been the subject of letters to the same paper.
The story itself is worth reporting, of course it is; the readership is British after all. But the column inches it has generated serves once more to highlight the degree to which stories that do not materially affect people who live in Mallorca dominate to the exclusion of local news and comment. It's interesting, sure, but not that interesting.
In the current "Euro Weekly" there is the regular piece by that old scoundrel Leapy Lee. This current article is worthy of attention; it is a strong condemnation of all-inclusives and of the change to the law on bar noise. Ok, there is some potential vested interest - he is a bar owner in Calvia where there the law has been implemented - but this does not negate the sentiments of what he has to say. There is something interesting at the end of this piece. He says: "I'm sorry to have been a little ‘Mallorca indulgent’ this week." He has written about something that does materially affect a lot of people on the island - in a way that John Bercow does not - and yet sees the need to apologise. For those used to rants against "Herr Braun" and expect a weekly diatribe of a somewhat dubious right-wing nature about how bad things are under Labour, then perhaps his devoted readership needs an apology. It shouldn't be.
Coincidentally, I was told that that thing I did about bar owners and all-inclusives in Alcúdia will now be appearing this Saturday in "The Bulletin". Well, that's what I'm told anyway. But if it is a part of contributing to a wider debate and awareness-raising as to the impact of all-inclusives, then one can but hope that there will indeed be a wider and more fruitful debate and also campaign conducted in the paper's pages. It is a subject that all the media in Mallorca needs to be devoting serious attention to. It is the "principal problem" with the island's tourism model, as I said the other day. But the debate needs to go further than the normal volleys across the net of how-bad, how-good all-inclusives are. We've heard it all before. There should be a call for some genuine research, perhaps conducted by the tourism department of the university in Palma, as to the impact of all-inclusives. Whether it would be commissioned is another matter; the conclusions might not be what certain bodies want to hear. But this is the direction that the debate needs to go in; not just a constant reiteration of anecdotal moans and praise.
John Bercow by all means, but let there be less of him and more of the real issues facing the island. Personally, I reckon Bercow is a good choice, but I don't really care one way or the other. Now, if Ann Widdecombe had got the gig ... What a hoot that would have been.
Michael Jackson
What can you say? Remarkable that tmz.com broke the story.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Beastie Boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbqIyeed4g. Today's title - one word changed of course; who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The story itself is worth reporting, of course it is; the readership is British after all. But the column inches it has generated serves once more to highlight the degree to which stories that do not materially affect people who live in Mallorca dominate to the exclusion of local news and comment. It's interesting, sure, but not that interesting.
In the current "Euro Weekly" there is the regular piece by that old scoundrel Leapy Lee. This current article is worthy of attention; it is a strong condemnation of all-inclusives and of the change to the law on bar noise. Ok, there is some potential vested interest - he is a bar owner in Calvia where there the law has been implemented - but this does not negate the sentiments of what he has to say. There is something interesting at the end of this piece. He says: "I'm sorry to have been a little ‘Mallorca indulgent’ this week." He has written about something that does materially affect a lot of people on the island - in a way that John Bercow does not - and yet sees the need to apologise. For those used to rants against "Herr Braun" and expect a weekly diatribe of a somewhat dubious right-wing nature about how bad things are under Labour, then perhaps his devoted readership needs an apology. It shouldn't be.
Coincidentally, I was told that that thing I did about bar owners and all-inclusives in Alcúdia will now be appearing this Saturday in "The Bulletin". Well, that's what I'm told anyway. But if it is a part of contributing to a wider debate and awareness-raising as to the impact of all-inclusives, then one can but hope that there will indeed be a wider and more fruitful debate and also campaign conducted in the paper's pages. It is a subject that all the media in Mallorca needs to be devoting serious attention to. It is the "principal problem" with the island's tourism model, as I said the other day. But the debate needs to go further than the normal volleys across the net of how-bad, how-good all-inclusives are. We've heard it all before. There should be a call for some genuine research, perhaps conducted by the tourism department of the university in Palma, as to the impact of all-inclusives. Whether it would be commissioned is another matter; the conclusions might not be what certain bodies want to hear. But this is the direction that the debate needs to go in; not just a constant reiteration of anecdotal moans and praise.
John Bercow by all means, but let there be less of him and more of the real issues facing the island. Personally, I reckon Bercow is a good choice, but I don't really care one way or the other. Now, if Ann Widdecombe had got the gig ... What a hoot that would have been.
Michael Jackson
What can you say? Remarkable that tmz.com broke the story.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Beastie Boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbqIyeed4g. Today's title - one word changed of course; who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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