Not a lot makes me sadder than seeing a very small child desperately trying to get the attention of a parent who is just staring at their phone.

Some (slightly meandering) thoughts on The Observer’s cracking investigative piece into the truth behind The Salt Path story, and the audience and media reaction to it.

With bonus description of my media theorist’s hat.

Print isn’t dead, and doesn’t need to die. Because, in a digital-first world, it’s an invaluable form of retreat and escape.

Romantasy is here for your attention.

Blame TikTok.

Back to some work blogging, with a look back on the posts that caught people’s attention in 2024. The fall of Twitter, Facebook and the big digital news sites, and the rise of AI slop.

And… Shrimp Jesus?

Too many of us are trapped in a social media-generated bubble of synthetic citizenship, with activism and attention in the digital world substituting for actual civic engagement.

I know it’s free, but I think the days of publishers relying on Google Analytics should be done. Not only does GA4 not really deliver the metrics publishers should be paying attention to, it’s also pretty unreliable on key real-time metrics.

Bluesky is really having a moment. So should journalists be paying attention to it? Almost certainly.

We’re approaching the tipping point for the network.

Brits: Adventurous Ink, a great book club that sends you books on nature, adventure - and reconnecting with each other and reclaiming our attention — has a relaunch Kickstarter that’s struggling to meet its target.

Please do check it out, and consider backing.

Substack launched Notes to steal attention from Twitter.

It succeeded. Right now, I bet they’re regretting that.