TechWire

How "exclusives" work in the Irish news media

When is an exclusive not an exclusive?

That's the question many journalists ask themselves when they see a story they've written turn up as an "exclusive" in another organ, later in the week or month. It has happened to us all. But it has happened to Ian Kehoe, a reporter with The Sunday Business Post, more than most. (In recent weeks, anyway.)

On Sunday, the Sunday Independent ran an exclusive front page story about 10 high profile businessmen losing €300 million through a complicated 'non-recourse' deal with Anglo-Irish bank. The story was that they were given €30 million each in a loan from Anglo Irish, on condition that they used the money to buy shares in the ailing bank. The 'non-recourse' part of the deal meant that if the value of the shares fell, they did not have to make up the difference. In other words, it was an attempt by Anglo-Irish to rig their share price using friendly businessmen who wouldn't say a word about it.

Great story, eh?

Except Ian Kehoe wrote it, on the front page of the SBP, two weeks previously. It was again mentioned the following Sunday. And on Sunday just gone. The Sunday Times also had the story previously.

Despite this, radio stations and dailies ran with the story and various follow-up pieces all of Sunday and Monday, as if it were the first time they were hearing this piece of news.

Similarly, the Sunday before last, Ian wrote the story that became the tale of an €8 billion loan from Irish Life and Permanent to Anglo Irish Bank. The only detail missing was the name of the lender (ILP). On Tuesday, that name finally emerged, with RTE's David Murphy first to report it. The entire story has now gone down as an RTE scoop, when it patently was not.

In a way, this is the nature of news consumption: it is only news if people hear or see it. The Sunday Times, for example, ran a feature on page three about Twitter. There was nothing new in there, nothing that hadn't been written umpteen times. All of a sudden, though, radio stations were scrambling to put items together on Twitter.

This is because The Sunday Times sells 120,000 copies. And they placed it on page 3. (Arguably, The Sunday Times decided to run its feature because of a small piece on the front of the previous Saturday's Irish Times which, again, was fairly inconsequential.)

By comparison, I wrote a full page feature on Twitter about a month ago in the SBP. But far fewer people will have seen that piece than the subsequent pieces in The Irish Times or The Sunday Times. And I'm sure that people who have been blogging about Twitter for ages (eg Damien Mulley) will say that I have come late to Twitter (which, compared to him, I certainly have).

The lesson? Be wary of the word "exclusive" when attached to a story.

Why some journalists make great interviewers -- and other don't

Listening to a segment on Today With Pat Kenny this morning, I was reminded of why some people make it as broadcasters and others don't. It's the same principle for what makes a good print journalist -- when interviewing -- and what makes a mediocre one. It's the ability to listen and (genuinely) be interested.

In our newspaper, we have one or two journalists who don't get big scoops or front page exclusives. But they excel in listening to people and being interested in their story, whatever it is. This leads to interviews that are far more illuminating than interviews conducted by colleagues who have a pre-cooked agenda or are impatient to get on to the next gig.

The main reason they achieve this is that they return to first principles when interviewing a subject: they listen and they are genuinely interested in their subject, no matter who it is or what they do. This sounds like a very simple thing, but it is amazing how little it is observed and practiced. (I, for one, often struggle with the 'being interested' part.)

Many journalists are like people in the street -- far more interested in their own views, in hearing their own opinions aired and validated than in what the next person thinks or feels. When a point is being made to them, their mind is racing to come up with a rebuttal or an intelligent observation, rather than listening to the point and following the interviewee's own preferred direction.

The urge to become part of the subject, rather than the one who is recording the subject for posterity, can be overwhelming. I know I often feel and sometimes have to fight hard against it (sometimes I just can't do it).

Being interested is at least as hard. Think about it: you have nine people to interview in a week. Four of them have started new companies (at least two of which sound really weak), three of them are executive vice presidents of some large multinationals and two of them are government or state sector managers. Sound like a barrel of fun? And yet the professional journalist -- who can listen and remain interested -- will take all nine of those interviews and make something worthy of each of them.

Being interested in what the other person has to say always, always (given time) leads to the subject opening up more and a better choice of material being available for the final article/broadcast.
If they don't teach this in journalism school in DCU and DIT Aungier Street, they should.

Why email often doesn't work for consumer rights

In several recent customer relations incidents, I've noticed that emails are as often ignored as they are responded to. Even when responded to, it is often simply with a holding message stating that the email has been received and "will be dealt with in due course". And then nothing happens thereafter.

This applies equally to large US companies (who should know better) as it does to Irish companies. For instance, I have sent a couple of security-related concerns to Ebay through its online "security centre". I received no response. That's poor.

In general, Irish companies regard email as a third tier of communication (behind the phone and postal mail). For instance, in the issue I recently had with Annesley Motors, where I was ripped off for over €100, I sent six separate emails to three individuals (whose email addresses are on the company's website) about it. Not a single response. I have now shot off three separate letters in the hope of getting a response. (If that doesn't work, I'll call. If that doesn't work, I'll turn up in person.)

If you want attention from an Irish company, it seems you must write, call or physically confront. We do not yet take electronic communication seriously as a means of doing business.

The Onion's take on Sony's latest must-have gadget

Michele spotted this -- thought it was worth reblogging. Pretty funny.

Sony Ireland boss: we need a government stimulus package (and maybe a Vat cut) to get people buying tech again

I spoke to Sushil Teij, general manager of Sony Ireland, last week. Among the things we discussed were the plight of retailers and the electronics industry. He said that the government "needs to intervene" in the current retailing freefall. As an example of what should be considered, he referred to the scrappage scheme used for the motor industry a couple of years ago. He also floated the idea of lowering Ireland's Vat rate to rival Britain's move before Christmas.
Teji said that the Irish electronics industry is down 23 per cent year-on-year and 27 per cent in the last quarter of 2008.

Happy Valentine's darling: here's a TCP/IP guide

Have some companies no shame?

This habit of using any public occasion to try and sell inappropriate products is getting out of hand. The amount of chance-your-arm pitches coming in to the paper, dressed up as 'Valentine's Gifts', is truly astonishing. I've had USB sticks. Killzone 2 vouchers. One lady even suggested that a print cartridge would make an excellent Valentine's gift for your "loved one".

Just picture it: a romantic dinner, a nice ambience, some moments of tenderness. And then: "here you are darling. It lasts 10 per cent longer than generic print cartridges..."

My Twitter Mosaic

This is fun. A generated mosaic of one's Twitter followers (or friends). If you want, you can print it onto a mug, a t-shirt, a bag or whatever. Thanks to Sxoop. (No, I don't know how to pronounce it.)

What car dealers' websites don't tell you: €113 charge for a repair quote

[I've updated this, below, as of March 1st, 2009.]

I just had a fairly shocking reality check on big car dealers' servicing practices.

My car has a problem with central locking. I checked the web for dealers that also do repairs and servicing. For my car (an Audi), Annesley Motors repair and service cars.

I checked the website for a price guide. Nothing. So I rang them and asked about a service and a central locking repair job. The price mentioned on the phone for the service was too high, so I declined on the spot. They didn't know how much the central locking problem would be, and asked whether I'd like to bring it in for a look, to get a quote. I said fine, but not to actually do anything until they quoted me a figure. How naive I was.

When the garage rang me today with a repair quote, it was too expensive for me -- €870 (€390 for parts, €480 for 4 hours' labour). I declined and went in to pick it up.

That's when they got me. The charge for looking at it to give me a quote was €113. That's right -- €113 just to quote me how much the repair fee would cost. They even gave me an itemised bill, referring to their cost as a "diagnostic". I had no choice but to pay.

At no point during our initial phone conversation was such a charge mentioned. There are no signs or notices on the shop premises about it, either. And, needless to say, there is no mention of it whatsoever on the company's website.

I must admit to feeling hard done by. It's not the existence of the charge itself -- I can understand the logic, if they assigned a busy mechanic to spend time looking at it. It's that they didn't mention a word about the charge in advance.

I had thought I made it clear on the phone that I did not want to pay money without being told in advance. True, I did not specifically ask whether there would be a fee for just looking at the car to assess the quote. But it didn't even occur to me. Do you pay a builder or an architect for coming out to your house to assess a job and come up with a detailed quote?

In this day and age, surely this practice goes against what consumer advocates would refer to as 'fair play'.

Perhaps this is a standard practice among big car dealers. Maybe I'm just completely naive. But I sure as hell wasn't aware of this modus operandi. Otherwise I would obviously have enquired about the charge to examine the car.

Incidentally, the €113 charge was completely separate to the further €870 I would have incurred had I left it there to be serviced. In other words, the total charge would have come to €983.

I'm not sure what to do about this. It's only €113, not the end of the world. But it's the manner in which it was extracted that is irritating.

UPDATE (01/03/2009)

Around the time of this post, I emailed Annesley Motors (two directors and the head of servicing) to complain and to request some form of reimbursement. I got nothing in response so I emailed again. Still nothing, so I sent three letters into the company.

A few days later I received an email from one of the directors. He said he read through my complaint (essentially what is written above) but that, given his mechanics had spent time looking at my car for the purposed of a quote, they were justified in taking the money.

We entered into a correspondence of about 6 or 7 emails each about it and he said there was nothing they could do. I then told him that the car had since mysteriously developed a problem with the (previously flawless) heating system. And that it started the moment I got the car back from the 'work' that Annesley had conducted on the vehicle: this is absolutely true.

I asked whether, if Annesley would not refund me the ill-gotten €113, could they at least fix the heating, that they probably tinkered with? The director said they would look at it for a heating problem. The only catch -- it would cost €113 to look at it, should they come back to me with the verdict (guaranteed, let's face it) that it was not a problem they had caused. I said 'come off it'. In fairness to the director, he said the company would waive the charge, "as a gesture of goodwill".

I put the car in for examination about a week later and was told that there was a problem with the heating and that it would cost up to €1,400 to fix. But nothing about having caused it. And, let's be honest, how can I prove otherwise?

The bottom line in all of this is that I feel royally screwed over by Annesley Motors. I feel that they are undergoing a crisis in sales at the moment and are trying to exact charges and business in ways that I do not think are fair.

I hope this serves as a general warning about motor garages' operations.

3 Ireland ups its data cap by 5GB a month

It has upped its monthly limit to 15GB on its €20 per month mobile broadband packages.

Consumer review websites: great idea, no-one using them yet

I really like the idea of RantRrave, Qype and other Irish ratings/reviews websites. I think they're particularly apt in this economy, with word-of-mouth being crucial. The problem is that a lot of the 'reviews' seem to be gamed by those with something to benefit or to lose. Take this review on Qype (the first one I checked!):

"Mizzoni’s Pizza claims to be the “best pizza on Earth” and it wouldn’t be far from it. The combinations of pizza toppings and side orders are unique and oh so tasty! They offer great delivery rates on top of their reasonable prices and their pizzas are always satisfying. Mizzoni might just be the best pizza on Earth!"

Bullshit. I live pretty close to Phibsboro and have been to Mizzoni's twice. It's a fair three-out-of-five place -- the pizza is only alright. Anyway, who'd write a review like that?

What these sites seem to need is more rigourous moderation. If I can pick out a hoax review in 10 seconds, a moderator should too. Otherwise, the sites become redundant fairly quickly.

What's the next great website idea?

What's the next great website idea in Ireland? Which ones are even half worth doing?

I had an idea for a site (won't call it 'social networking') where people could interact on practical interior design. But where you could put up pics of your own rooms for discussion. And go on looking for advice. It would need some pretty good software behind it, because it would need to be very visual, and need to be drag-and-drop usable. The thing is, from being in a relationship with a quintessential Irish woman, the discussion of decoration and houses becomes a constant feature of some social circles. If it could be done right, half the website would be about user/peer-interaction and the other half would be a shopping centre.
What did I do about this? Not a whole lot. I went to the head of a prominent Irish internet firm to discuss it last year. He acknowledged the potential of the idea but thought it was too much work. I actually don't have time to do it, either. And one of the things that put me off was the constant pimping that it seems to take. i.e. going on forums, boards, social networking sites, even Twitter, and plugging your site to death. It's a real salesman's job.

But there must be some great websites that are starting off out there...

And people must have ideas.

Nokia to launch its own App store?

Let's hope so. Engadget has the story.

Lookandtaste.com: the new ifoods.tv

Just logged onto the revamped site for the first time. It's not as attractive looking as ifoods.tv but the site itself is terrific. Chef Niall Harbison (left) may not exactly be Giada De Laurentiis (to look at, anyway), but his videos are great. Definitely worth checking out.

Samsung's 8MP Pixon cameraphone: a 60 second review

Last week I got a Samsung Pixon M8800 to play around with. Its headline feature is its 8 megapixel camera, quick photo set-up and touchscreen system. Overall, I like it. But there are some buts. After a couple of days' use, here are the initial pros and cons:

Pros

Screen is very fast to react to finger taps. (Unlike, say, the Blackberry Storm.) This makes texting really, really easy.
Widget bar on the side is fun. There are loads of widget applications on there, and it's a nicer way to find an application than clicking into a menu and then a sub-menu.
Camera is superb. There's no doubt about it -- this is one of the best, if not the best, camera on the cameraphone market. Sony Ericsson's C905 is the only other phone that can rival it, but its screen is way smaller. It's not just the clarity and detail that the 8 megapixels give you: it's the set-up time, which is under 2 seconds. And when you take a shot, there's no five-second tortuous display of the shot you've just taken to let the camera reset itself.It's ready to go again in about 1 second, which makes all the difference in the world.
Touchscreen is easy to use. Samsung has hit a good balance between iPhone-style intuition and Nokia-style menus.

Cons

Very hard to see in bright daylight, especially sunshine. Out on a walk in a snowy park yesterday, I could barely make out what was on the screen, because direct sunlight was hitting it.
Side buttons make it impossible to take it out of a pocket without activating something. You lock down the screen with one touch of a side-button. But because all it takes is one touch, it's sooo easy to inadvertently activate the screen when rooting for the phone in a pocket. There are four other side buttons, on both sides, which makes activation of the camera, volume level or other functions likely.
Not every feature is intuitive. While the widgets are fun to use, you find that once you activate them, it's a mystery to unactivate them, leaving you with a very messy screen. It took me ages -- and a trip to the manual -- to figure it out.
Battery life is mediocre. Without using it too much, I struggled to get a full day out of the phone's battery. I suppose that's to be expected, given it's large touchscreen.
No 3.5mm standard headphone jack. Oh_my_God. How can any manufacturer make a high-end multimedia phone these days with some stupid, proprietary headphone connection? Arrrgggh!

I guess I should mention that the phone has an FM radio, is fully HSDPA-enabled, has Bluetooth, wi-fi and a memory card expansion slot (it comes with a 1GB card in the box).

Right now, the M8800 Pixon is available on O2 billpay for about €250. But we're told it will be available on all the networks (except 3 Ireland) fairly soon. Its sim-free price on Expansys.ie is €430 (excluding delivery charge).

Macs hit 10% market share: Windows down to 88%

There's a lot of evidence that Macs are growing their market share rapidly (for them). This report (via TG Daily) puts numbers on the trend. Bear in mind that it's based on visits to hosted websites (albeit 160 million unique users), so it's not conclusive.