Looking forward

We are skiers with fresh snow, surfers with high surf, blackbirds in the rain (they know the worms will come). 2009 is a good year for people that like change. It is the year of change. Shakeup Media, as the name implies, is a change business.

Too complicated (and arguably foolish) to try now and predict what the changes in media will be like. We will write about broad outlines in the following few weeks and keep monitoring stuff continually throughout the year.

Two background points: it is very, very hard and painful being a major media company right now and if we get excited about change we also want strenuously to avoid being callous or unsympathetic about their difficulties … and the friends who are caught managing the squeeze.

Second, change is happening in every field not just media. Media talks about itself all the time so you will hear more about media change. But the real story is much bigger: China, globalisation, water but all these pale beside the exponential surge in humanity’s interconnectedness and understanding.

Some intentions here at Shakeup Media:

• better, more participatory, conversation, thinking, blogging and twittering
• starting something in media that we can be really proud of, something good
• looking for opportunities to take over an existing business where we can manage it to be … as above
• helping our clients grasp the opportunities of change, despite the pressures of recession

We continue of course with our main job, redesigning newspapers, websites, magazines (and doing it as journalists, editors, writers - as well as designers).

However, we have access to far-sighted, imaginative investors so we are interested in hearing about ideas and opportunities. Quality is the key.

Happy New Year

Add comment January 4th, 2009

Looking back

In 2008 we were busy with the following

• a redesign and rethink of The Daily Monitor, the independent national paper of Uganda
• a redesign of the FT weekend edition, which reported at the end of the year a 33% readership increase
• a redesign of the website for Curtis Bown, the country’s oldest and most distinguished literary agency
• a redesign of all the websites for the Nation Media Group, Kenya’s biggest and most important media company
• the launch of Blatherskite, an online diary column still in its early days
• the management of Horoscopes, an amazingly successful online astrology site (no thanks to us: readers love the astrologer Christeen Skinner)
• The Manual, a hand-written, hand-printed newspaper (we only produced one edition…..so far)
• the expansion of The Drawbridge, a beautiful, small circulation newspaper of ideas that needs to grow
• writing a book with Stephen Green about the future of humanity, nearly half done now
• moving offices from W1 to an airier, lighter space in Farringdon
• and a couple of start-ups that we are not permitted to talk about

The media world shifted considerably during the year.  At the beginning there were many media whales and a massive number of barnacles (such as us) clinging on. At the end there were big fish and small fish so things had equalled up a little. Also some of the big fish were sick and some of the small ones were startlingly vigorous.

Please have a look now at the post “Looking Forward”

Happy New Year to you all.

Add comment January 4th, 2009