• Pages

  • Consultancy
  • Old Diocesan's France
  • Special Places to Stay
  • - Australia
  • - South Africa
  • - France
  • - Great Britain
  • Special Places to Eat
  • - Australia
  • - South Africa
  • - France
  • - Great Britain

• Property Rentals

  • Australia
  • France
  • South Africa
  • - Knysna
  • United States

• Recent Articles

  • A British Break - [2]
  • 2Oceansvibe Radio launches
  • Madame’s Magic moments [9]
  • French Newspaper - rewriting the rules
  • In case you were wondering!
  • Provence- The Best of Summer
  • A British Break - Summer [1]
  • John Terry’s Boss
  • A Week in Provence - Summer Wrap
  • Paywall hits the Wall

• Archives

  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008

• Search

In the age when all we seem to read and write about is the imminent demise of the newspaper, this mornings NY Times reports on a heart-warming tale from France:

Mon Quotien (My Daily)

When Elisa Cammarota gets home from school, she tosses off her knapsack and reads her newspaper from front to back. Anthony Azoulay does, too, though he focuses on articles about soccer and large photo spreads. Both Elisa and Anthony are 10 years old and entering the fifth grade in the fall. And both are regular subscribers to one of the most popular daily newspapers in France.

On a recent morning, the two children sat at a large rectangular table with several of the newspaper’s editors. The paper, Mon Quotidien, or My Daily, invites several of its readers twice weekly to help edit the paper, except for the front page, choosing stories that will be featured in its seven other pages.

The national editor, Caroline Hallé, was proposing an article about a school in Britain that had bought hawks and falcons to drive off a plague of seagulls that were dirtying the premises.

Alternatively, she proposed news of how divers had recently found bottles of French Champagne that King Louis XVI had sent to the czar of Russia, but had gone down when the ship transporting them sank in the Baltic Sea. “How did Louis XVI end?” asked Olivier Gasselin, 40, the paper’s deputy editor. “Guillotine,” Elisa shot back, without raising her eyes from the notes she was making.

“We propose, they choose,” said Ms. Hallé, 34, who joined the paper nine years ago after working at an Internet news site.

In an age when many children are addicted to computers, iPods and iPads — and when newspapers are feeling the pressure — Mon Quotidien appears to be an anomaly, all the more so in the journalistic climate of France.

Despite great journalistic names like Le Monde and Le Figaro, the French read ever fewer newspapers. On a per capita basis, only about half as many papers are sold here as in Germany or Britain, and readership is especially low among the young. Only 10 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds read a paid-for newspaper in 2007, the last time the government took a survey, down from 20 percent a decade earlier.

In fact, so concerned was the French government with the decline in newspaper readership that it detailed plans last year for a program called Mon Journal Offert, or My Complimentary Paper, to offer 18- to 24-year-olds a free yearlong subscription to a newspaper of their choice. Though the program quickly reached the 200,000-reader limit the government had foreseen, there was little sign that readers continued their subscriptions once they had to pay.

The papers, which appear every day but Sunday, are lively and colorful mixes of news, photos, cartoons and quizzes. A recent issue of Mon Quotidien featured a front-page photo of Paul the Octopus, which successfully picked the winners of 2010 World Cup soccer games. Another featured a tiny new car at the Berlin auto show that folds up for easy storage in tight spaces.

[news source - NY Times]

The much vaunted paywall experiment by Mr Murdoch seems to have hit the proverbial wall! Newser reports as follows:

“What has putting up a paywall done for the folks at the Times? Driven away most of their readers, predictably. Only 150,000 signed up for “Times+” accounts, and only 15,000 of them actually agreed to pay when their free trial ran out, according to an unconfirmed report on Beehive City, written by former Times media correspondent Dan Sabbagh. “This figure, apparently, is considered disappointing,” he writes.

And with good reason. Based on those figures only 12% of the Times pre-paywall readership was even willing to sign up for the free trial, according to PaidContent, and only 10% of that group actually decided to pay, meaning a slim 1.2% of original readers have agreed to pony up. Even during the free month, visits fell 58%; they were down by 67% once the paywall went up—which might actually be better-than-expected. It also has 12,500 iPad customers, which is a pretty nice number given the relatively low number of iPad owners.

Read more: http://www.newser.com/story/95915/paywall-drives-off-988-of-times-readers.html#ixzz0uChRj6QP

You’ve just gotta feel sorry for the Poms. Retail in the High Street is awash with bargains of selling off England World Cup merchandise.

Even the crocs -

[Yes, that's right - Caps and Crocs 70% off]

[This is not some dodgy store - it's Britain's largest sports retailer and online outlet - quietly pasting A4 sheets from the store printer over the previous, heralded 'Tailored by England' TV campaign. The question - 15 pounds may be too much!!]

                                                                                                                                                                                                 With this little email popping into the ‘inbox’, a new era in the relationship between Print and the Internet has begun.

“Times Online is closing.  Dear Simon, We would like to inform you that the Times Online website, timesonline.co.uk is closing today. It will be replaced by our two new websites: thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk. As you are already registered, you can continue to enjoy access – simply visit thetimes.co.uk or thesundaytimes.co.uk and enter your login details in the box on the bottom right to explore. We hope to see you soon. The Times and The Sunday Times”

 

 

From now on, if you wish to access either The Times or The Sunday Times you have to register, log on and there is an inevitability about having to pay GBP1 per day in the not too distant future.

The question we ask: Will the others follow suit? Or is Rupert using one of his flagships as the pioneer and feeling the temperature?

It’s going to be interesting.

Just before the oil debacle, BP issued these promotional item t-shirts.

Pity.

[visual: CC Times]

                                                                      Log on to Twitter and follow us on ‘hulloprovence’. Follow us!

The Aussie media are experts - and so is the UK - at cutting down the tall poppy. Kevin Rudd as PM of Australia has run out of time to convince the media that he can pull anything off. Here’s a snippet from the local media -

“In fact, so incompetent is Rudd’s Government that it couldn’t even be trusted to commission mugs to celebrate the visit of US President Barack Obama. Not only is the visit cancelled, but the official mugs commemorate a “Barrack”.”

Shame. Makes one remember when Steve Waugh was cut down with such fierce venom that the media even forgot to say ’sorry’ when he scored a last century at the SCG.

Kevin, pull on your pads, strap on a helmet, you are going to need them!

This morning - Wednesday - Crikey in Australia had an insightful editorial about the real state of play in the world economy.

It makes grim reading and for those of us in Europe who are looking nervously at Greece, Spain, Portugal and the UK, read on …..

“Greece is on life support. Spain is ailing. Britain is far from well.

But the really sick patient in the global emergency ward isn’t in Europe. The most serious case of infectious economic disease is suffering in the heartland of global capitalism, and the prognosis is pretty grim:

“More than 15 million Americans are out of work, and nearly half have been jobless for six months or longer. New college graduates are having a terrible time finding work, and many are taking jobs that require only a high school education. Teachers are facing the worst employment market since the Depression…

“It’s impossible to overstate the threat that this crisis of unemployment poses to the well-being of the United States. With so many people out of work and so much of the rest of the population deeply in debt, where is the spending going to come from to power a true economic recovery? The deficit hawks are forecasting Armageddon, but how is anyone going to get a handle on the federal deficits if we don’t get millions of people back to work and paying taxes?

“Some inner-city neighborhoods, where joblessness is off the charts, are becoming islands of despair. Rural communities and rust belt cities and towns are experiencing their own economic nightmares.”

That’s how columnist Bob Herbert described the US jobless malaise in yesterday’s New York Times.

Europe may be going through a serious contagion built around unmanageable deficits, but the real sick man of the world economy is American and he’s out of work.”

[Reproduced from Crikey. If you want to subscribe go to www.crikey.com.au : it's worth it!]

The big countdown is on and even in France where they have a united dislike of the Bleus coach, Raymond Domenech and a less than positive view of the team, pubs are distributing flyers to watch the event on the big screen.

Coca-Cola true to form are handing our free glasses to all the bistros and here is one with the ubiquitous vuselela on!

[Coca-light in Louramin!]

Those of us who have grown up cutting our business teeth in the Advertising and Marketing industries used to wish for a chance to work on some iconic brands and learn from the ‘masters’.

Some strayed into the liquor and tobacco field and others, including many advertising agency bosses, lusted after worked on such brands as Volkswagen - family, trust, integrity, reliability. Great stuff, feel-good stuff, award-potential stuff.

With all these great brand attributes in mind, we looked for a reliable, compact but roomy (a paradox I know but then France is full of paradoxes) economical car for our move to France. In March last year, we settled on the VW Touran.

The Touran has been great - it has put up with snow, ice, heat, being parked under a tree inactive for three months. You name it. We love it.

On Monday we packed a picnic, loaded up everyone and headed off to the Camargue for a day of gypsy spotting and to witness the procession of Sainte Sara.

Buzzing along at a comfortable 140kmph (our little radar stick keeps Madame’s accelerator foot in line) a loud bang reverberated through the car - burst tyre. Some exceptional driving saw Madame pilot the car to the right hand wall and we came to a rest safely.

No problem - with a few able bodied males around all we had to do was unpack, take out the spare tyre and off we would go.

French law dictates that you put on a ‘gilet’ and arrange a triangle neatly 200 metres from the car. Will’s role.

Ladies unpack and wait patiently for the men to do something. It was 31 degrees C by then!

While Will was placing his triangle, Richard and Simon hunted for the spare tyre. Our French instruction book showed the existence of a spare tyre. Very close - near to disassembling the chassis of the car proved that there was not one! William googled via the wonders of the iPhone that the Touran does not have one!

The instruction manual? The section on tyres etc we had been given was for the wrong model! So much for VW reliability, after-sales service!

We did find some sealant and a pump. We pumped and pumped and the sealant ran into the road. The tyre was history.

Now what to do. It was Simon’s turn to walk 1km to a SOS post and speak in his best French for an autoroute emergency truck to arrive.

It arrived after only a half and hour wait in the blazing sun - apparently good by French standards. We were duly placed inside the car, hoisted up on to the flatbed, strapped in and whizzed back to the emergency garage some 10km off the autoroute.

Situated deep in the heart of Salon-de-Provence, this is not where you would want to spend a hot Monday, and a Public Holiday to boot.

Our transport. The mechanic had no tyres to sell us (in France you have to buy two tyres when you replace, they will not sell you one). However, he kindly called a local taxi - a small dusty Renault which took us (boys in the boot) at 150kmph home to Menerbes.

We returned two days later to fetch the Touran. But not after Jean-Pierre and Robert had had to intervene to assist us with technical translations of such exotic questions such as “how do I get the hubcaps off” from the mechanic re-fitting the tyres.

The car is back on the road. We’re much wiser after the experience and can’t help continually asking the question - why would a brand like VW not have a spare tyre, and why don’t they tell you when you but the car? Silly question? No, google VW Touran and see how the web is littered with people who have been caught short due to the no spare tyre experience.

Au bientot: Lovonne and Simon

Next Page →

• Blog Roll

  • 2 Oceans Vibe - what the kids are reading!
  • Bastide Les Amis - the ultimate property rental in France
  • Crikey - what they don’t publish in Oz
  • Croaky - For all the latest behind the scenes info on healthcare in Australia and beyond
  • Follow Me On Twitter - My Twitter feed LIVE from Provence!
  • Hotels In Monaco - Hotels in Monaco
  • Noseweek - news you’re not supposed to know
  • Popyacollar - A leading edge look at fashions and trends - updated virtually daily
  • Times Blogs - Down The Track, the best cricket there is

• Other Links



Interior design, staging for sale, polishing up your décor:
Goto Beach Stone Interiors to see our portfolio. Represented in Chatham (Cape Cod, USA); Cape Town (South Africa); Melbourne (Australia); Menerbes (France)