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Category: Media

2016 Oscar betting: Roger marks your card

2016 Oscar betting: Roger marks your card

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…….. and now for something completely different 2016 Oscars. The most competitive year I can remember and an unusual one. Nine Irish nominations in the major categories though none for blacks which has led to Spike Lee calling for ‘a blackout’. Also interesting though unlikely to cut much ice here 12 times nominated ‘The Revenant’ was the highest grossing film of all time in Russia.  (WARNING: Just a reminder of my track record. I’m the one who in 2005 said…

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The Independent bows to the inevitable and will stop its printed edition at the end of March

The Independent bows to the inevitable and will stop its printed edition at the end of March

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Pick of the bunch for me pic.twitter.com/kRK8GNJ99F — Jack Blanchard (@Jack_Blanchard_) February 12, 2016 How long before others go online only? The big media news this lunchtime is that the Indy and Indy on Sunday will stop producing printed editions at Easter but is going to continue in an online form. It had been struggling for some time and has seen a dramatic drop in the number of printed copies sold each day. The I, however, will continue and is…

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Why Team Corbyn might be on a loser attacking the trustworthiness of BBC journalists

Why Team Corbyn might be on a loser attacking the trustworthiness of BBC journalists

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The real problem, surely, is Labour’s poor media operation The whole reshuffle affair has dominated the headlines for far too long and that’s not been good for the image of Corbyn’s Labour. As Damian McBride was saying in the PB/Polling Matters podcast yesterday the art of a reshuffle is to have it largely completed before word starts seeping to the media. Instead we have had speculation going on for weeks so what should have been a 48 hour maximum story…

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Do 1 in 5 British Muslims really ‘sympathise with Jihadis’?

Do 1 in 5 British Muslims really ‘sympathise with Jihadis’?

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Keiran Pedley looks at this morning’s front page of The Sun and argues that we should always check the small print when reading opinion polls. As someone that has spent most of his professional life reading opinion polls I have always enjoyed this scene from Yes Minister where Sir Humphrey explains to Bernard how to rig an opinion poll. It’s a funny scene but does demonstrate a pretty important point that all pollsters know – opinion poll results are often as much about how…

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How readers of the different national papers voted at GE2015

How readers of the different national papers voted at GE2015

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YouGov chart showing how readers of different national papers voteVia @JoeMurphyLondon pic.twitter.com/Tvswr1XHVO — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) October 23, 2015 I love this chart which has just been produced by YouGov. It shows the splits of the readerships of the main national newspapers at the general election in May. Overall there’s nothing that’s really surprising though, perhaps, the fact that the Guardian has far fewer Lib Dem than the the FT,Times or the Telegraph comes as something as a surprise. Back…

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David Herdson says “Set the BBC free and let it flourish”

David Herdson says “Set the BBC free and let it flourish”

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We wouldn’t debate the ‘purpose’ of any other media organisation In all the debate about the terms of the BBC’s renewed Charter, one question seems to have gone unasked, never mind unanswered: why does the BBC need a Charter at all? The political reason why it has one is that it’s the flip-side of being funded by a tax, enforceable in law and if it has that right then it must equally have certain duties. The current debate about what…

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The big problem with free TV licences for those 75+ is that a staggering one in six of all UK households qualify

The big problem with free TV licences for those 75+ is that a staggering one in six of all UK households qualify

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Gordon Brown’s 2001 exemption rule has a huge loophole which should never have been agreed From 1980-84 a big part my then job at the BBC was to deal with the PR and political issues relating to the corporation’s prime income source, the TV licence. None of the challenges that was as sensitive or as problematic as what should be done about the oldies who were required to pay the same fee as everybody else. There had been a long-standing…

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Why categorising people by which papers they read might not be as relevant any more

Why categorising people by which papers they read might not be as relevant any more

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UK Press Gazette What we think of as newspapers have become news brands YouGov makes a big deal in its weightings on which newspaper those on its polling panel say they read. This was introduced by the firm when it started polling in 2001 and has remained a key part since even though there has been a collapse in the number of printed copies of papers being sold each day. We are still consuming papers but in a very different…

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