The Imperious Imposters of Journalism Innovation

I love blogging. I really do. But it does feel like getting traffic to OM&HB is harder then ever. I can’t recall a time in past 15 years that attracting readers was so very hard.

Part of that is my own fault - I’ve been very inconsistent as a blogger in recent years. And I’d hate to abandon it after all these years of labour.

But my goodness, does it feel like harder work getting the audience than it is getting the content written. And I’m sure that shouldn’t be the case.

Just for my microblog chums, this is the piece I was referring to: Don’t be an influencer, by a grumpy old blogger.

Just spent a couple of hours writing a blog post, which pretty much guarantees nobody will ever read it.

Why is traffic so often inversely proportional to effort?

Gah. Just spend a while constructing a post around a new feature of the CMS I use for One Man & His Blog - and realised that I have to wait for my theme provider to update their theme to support it.

A little thinking on the serious violence and murders in India that follow WhatsApp-spread misinformation. Is our knee-jerk reaction of blaming the technology the most useful approach?

This is a fascinating read: UK’s worst-selling map: The empty landscape charted by OS440

Perfect day for a walk on Shoreham Beach

A rocky shoreline meets clear turquoise ocean waves under a bright blue sky.

I spent ages earlier looking for my green screen cleaning cloth.

I just found it.

A small toy barn with a cloth roof, a tiny makeshift pond, a balloon animal, and several small objects are arranged on a green cloth by a window.

Villiers Street, London - 1994

A group of people are gathered outside a bakery or patisserie window, looking at the displayed cakes and pastries.An ornate historic building with a green dome stands at the corner of a busy urban street under a partly cloudy sky.A narrow city street lined with buildings, shops, and pedestrians is seen from an elevated viewpoint, with a white van parked along the curb.A pedestrian street lined with trees and planters is populated by people walking and sitting near an entrance to the London Underground station.

I’ve been scanning some old negatives in a pretty random way - just grab a packet and scan whatever’s in there.

This particular film was shot in late 1994, or early 1995, when I was working on The Publican, a now-gone magazine for the pub trade. I think the last 10 or 12 photos are why the film exists. They’re of a cellarman course I went on as part of my job. I appear to have “burned off” the rest of the film by shooting a load of random images around Charing Cross.

And they’re fascinating. On one level, you realise how little structure of these streets has changed in a little under 25 years. But the clothes, vehicles and branding on the shops is what gives away just how long ago this was.