Martin Bryant

Slides: Pitching your app or startup to the media

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:58:00 -0800

Last week I gave a talk at Midem in Cannes about pitching your app or startup to the media. There were a few requests for the slides, so here they are.

While this doesn't work as well without the accompanying talk, hopefully they'll be of use.

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Beyond Facebook Pages at LeWeb

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:40:43 -0800

Here's the video of the panel I moderated at LeWeb 2011, Going Beyond
Creating a Facebook Page. It features Matthieu Chéreau, Founder & CEO
of Tigerlily; Victoria Ransom, CEO of Wildfire, and Jan Rezab,
Co-Founder & CEO of Socialbakers.

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Managing Editor

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:57:00 -0800

As Zee's post yesterday revealed, I'm now (along with Brad McCarty) a Managing Editor at The Next Web - a role I'm obviously pretty excited about. With Zee heading off to San Francisco as our CEO, I'll be heading up day-to-day operations during European daytime hours, with Brad doing the same in US hours.

Congratulations also to Matt Brian and Matthew Panzarino, our new News Editors, and Courtney Boyd Myers, who is now Features Editor.

With all this, and a few other interesting bits and pieces I'm involved in, 2012 should be a fun year!

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Don't make me buy vinyl in 2011, even if I love your music

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 07:10:00 -0700

Today I bought some music on vinyl for the first time in at least five years, probably closer to ten.

I stopped buying vinyl because CDs, and then digital files, were infinitely more convenient to play on a computer, MP3 player or phone - the only ways I've wanted to listen to music over the past decade. My Last.fm account has a lot to do with that - being able to log and share my music taste reaps so many benefits in terms of new music discovery that I like to obsessively log every single song I choose to listen to.

In fact, I discovered my favourite band, The Fiery Furnaces, via Last.fm and I've since bought just about everything released by the band and its two members - brother and sister Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. So, it's no surprise that my first vinyl purchase in a decade is Cut It Out, a vinyl-only solo album by Matthew Friedberger.

Cut It Out is the fourth of six releases from Friedberger this year that will only be available on good old fashioned 12 inch plastic. I resisted buying the previous three - a subscription to the US-produced series was simply too expensive, and I figured that the individual albums would eventually be available digitally, even if I had to wait a year or too.

Then recently, I stumbled upon one of the vinyl-only tracks on YouTube and realised I'd been a bad fan - I'd missed out on multiple albums worth of material from a brilliant artist who (when I met him at a Fiery Furnaces gig a couple of years ago) had told me that further solo albums were on the cards - the least i could do was buy them.. I contacted Thrill Jockey, the US label releasing the series, to check - would it be released digitally in the future?

Thrill Jockey's David Halstead replied to the negative:

Unfortunately, no. The subscription (or trying to get each individual record in the shops over there) is the only way to get the music. That was intentional to preserve the special aspect of the collection."

So, having missed albums 1 to 3, I've bought number 4 on import from my local record shop. I've no idea how I'll listen to it (I imagine that a USB turntable is a purchase in my future at some point, so I can get the music into the format I want it in), but something struck me as I handed over the money to pay for the album:

As much as I love Matthew Friedberger's music and want to pay for it to help support him financially, isn't it incredibly arrogant to release an album on vinyl only?

The idea of listening to music on a record player alone at home or in a small group of friends isn't just old fashioned - it's positively obsolete. These days I want to be able to listen to my music wherever I am, to share what I listen to on my Last.fm profile or via Facebook's new social music features - listening without the flexibility and social dimension that digital formats provide is at odds with what music is today.

Sure it keeps the music special, but six albums' worth of music so special that only a few thousand people will ever own it? That's the musical artist equivalent of being Amish.

I'll still buy albums number 5 and 6 of course (1 to 3 are sold out) but I'll do it through gritted teeth. The music may be great, but to ignore the advantages of the 21st Century just to to 'keep something special' just irks me.

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Looking to the future media formats

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:28:00 -0700

This week I spoke at Media Evolution's conference in Malmö, Sweden about the future of media formats.

I also posted video interviews with Flattr, Ovelin and a member of the team behind MIT's folding CityCar over on The Next Web.

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More lulz at the BBC

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:57:56 -0700

Just arrived in the post from BBC Radio Wales is this recording of my appearance on Good Morning Wales last week, in which I discussed LulzSec disbanding... and found myself comparing them to the Sex Pistols. I'm pretty impressed by the quality, seeing as it was being done over Skype.

Interview about Lulzsec, BBC Radio Wales - 27-06-2011 by MartinBryant

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Lulz at the BBC

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 09:47:00 -0700

The BBC World Service invited me on to Newshour today to discuss the apparent disbanding of hacking group LulzSec.

Interview about LulzSec - BBC World Service Newshour - 260611 by MartinBryant

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How to make friends and influence bloggers

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:42:00 -0700

Social media agency Jam recently asked me to write up some thoughts about good blogger relations for PR folk from a blogger's perspective.

They published my piece on their blog here.

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Another reminder of just how fragile Japan is

Wed, 18 May 2011 05:45:00 -0700

During my current holiday in Japan, I visited the village of Toya Onsen. This beautiful spa resort, on the banks of Lake Toya, has been ravaged by volcanic eruptions more than once and the remarkable scars are there for all to see.

Given the recent disasters in the country, this is another reminder of just how fragile Japan is.

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A vanity search column on Tweetdeck can be a dangerous thing

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:34:00 -0700

...especially when you have a mass-murdering namesake.

At least, I think she isn't talking about me

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Slides, surgeries, Sky and startups

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 05:55:26 -0700

What did I get up to in the opening months of 2011? Well, this:

February saw me head over to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where (among other things) I explored Google's rather fantastic stand and rode on its slide...

I also helped out at Movement, a social media surgery event for musicians in Manchester, giving advice on moving on from Myspace to newer tools. The next one's on 19 April, so sign up if you want to come along.

In March I went along to a Sky News preview event for its iPad app. With about 30 seconds' notice I interviewed Political Editor Adam Boulton. The lack of notice led meant I couldn't prepare any hardball questions for him, but next time he's getting a grilling :)

I also helped out with Manchester Twestival (not as much as I'd have liked to if I'd have had more free time, to be honest). The event raised £1850 for local charity Wood Street Mission.

Then just this week, I stepped in to cover the Techonomy3 conference in Tel Aviv, Israel. I wrote up a full report over at The Next Web, but it was great to experience another side of the country from the conflict depicted regularly on the news. I found an exciting, inspiring community of technology entrepreneurs doing great work.

Speaking of which, I've got a bit of a bee in my bonnet of late about the lack of high-profile technology startups in Manchester. My recent post about it at The Next Web stirred up some interesting debate both on and off the site, and that's something I hope will continue over the coming months.

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A new look... and MWC

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 09:32:57 -0800

In a move to file under "About time too", I've given MartinBryant.net a new look and added dedicated About and Contact pages.

In other news, I'm heading off to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, so if you're going to be there and want to make contact, let me know.

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From Monday, I'm going full-time at The Next Web

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:10:25 -0800

It's hard to believe that I've been writing at The Next Web part-time for 18 months. When I started, it was just a way of writing about technology for a larger audience than I could get at my old personal blog. Since then The Next Web has grown unbelievably and it's been a pleasure to be part of the excellent team of editors and writers there. So, I was thrilled to recently be asked to join as part of the full-time team.

Yes, as of Monday I'll be a full-time tech blogger. To say I'm looking forward to it is an understatement - the amount of stories I've been unable to cover due to time constraints has become increasingly frustrating in recent months and it will be great to get my teeth into new challenges.

However, it does sadly mean that I'll be leaving the brilliant team at Marketing Manchester, where I've been Digital Content Editor for 14 months. It truly has been a pleasure working there. I know people almost always say nice things about the workplace they're leaving but seriously, from my first day there I felt totally at home with a group of people who are hard-working, positive, on my wavelength and who love Manchester. I honestly haven't got a bad word to say about the place. Heck, when I handed in my notice I actually went through a kind of grief process and I've never experienced that before when quitting a job.

Looking forward though, I'm really excited about sitting down at my keyboard on Monday and seeing what happens. In particular, my 'beat' will be startups from across Europe, online media (digital publishing, IPTV etc) and web/mobile apps so feel free to get in touch at martin[at]thenextweb.com with any news tips or story pitches.

[Image credit: Valeriana Solaris]

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Discovering Ukraine startups in Kiev

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 09:42:00 -0700

This week I visited the IDCEE conference in Kiev. It was a great opportunity to discover more about this under-reported part of the tech world. Here's an interview I did for the conference's official YouTube channel.

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Lost in Playstation 3 bullet hell

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:00:08 -0700

One of the video game genres I've loved since I was a child is shoot
'em ups, or 'Shmups' for short. In recent years I've grown
particularly fond of 'Bullet Hell' shmups so I was happy to see The
Gundemonium Collection arrive on the UK Playstation Store this week.

The three games in the collection all feature an 'Export to YouTube'
function. Here's a clip of my first (rather rubbish) go at
HitogataHappa - I'm sure I'll get better!

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Approaching tech journalists for press coverage

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:27:00 -0700

On Monday night I spoke at an event for tech startups called StartupMill Manchester. I was talking about how best to approach tech bloggers and journalists for press coverage.

My colleague Alex Wilhelm at The Next Web wrote a good piece a while back that summarises a lot of the same points that I covered. An interesting conversation sprung out of the talk, with the night's other speaker Jon Bradford sharing his own personal experiences of dealing with the tech press.

A few attendees asked if the slides could be put online for later reference, so here they are. They're a bit 'bare bones' (I like to keep slides minimal) but should hopefully help somebody, somewhere...

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More thoughts on journalism and blogging.

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:16:00 -0700

Following on from my post a few hours ago in reaction to Jolie O'Dell's post about journalism, I've been thinking some more about how journalism interfaces with blogging and my thoughts have crystallised a bit further...

They echo Martin Belam’s comment on Jolie's post: “Some bloggers do journalism very well. Some bloggers don’t do journalism at all. Some professional journalists don’t seem to do journalism that well either…”

Journalism is something that any blogger, no matter their level of experience or background, can do as long as they do it ethically and responsibly. If they break a story or move a story forward through doing their own legwork to get interviews or quotes, or simply dig around the internet for original evidence and then present it in a fair and balanced way, they're being a news journalist. When they take a story from elsewhere and repackage it for their audience (in a way that’s respectful to the content and its creator) they're being a curator and when they write an opinion piece they're being simply a writer. They’re all tools that a blogger has up his or her sleeve and uses as the situation demands.

We certainly all need to keep ourselves in check by adhering to standards though.

Right, that's enough existential angst for one year...

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Self-indulgent post about journalism and tech blogging

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:44:00 -0700

UPDATE: I've written something more succinct on this here.

I didn't mean to write anything tonight. I have a cold (AKA Man Flu) and was going to sit watching TV and doing nothing, but I had to get this off my chest.

As a someone who has been professionally blogging for over a year now, I've recently been questioning exactly what I am. Am I a blogger? A journalist? A journalist who blogs? A blogger who commits random acts of journalism? It doesn't really matter, of course but it's completely natural to question one's self and this is my personal blog. So, let's take a look...

As someone who strives to produce as much original, ethical reporting as possible, I'd settled on calling myself a journalist (although i sometimes wonder if that annoys friends who have slogged away on a journalism degree course, something I never did even if my Broadcasting degree covered some of the same ground). However, a post by Mashable writer Jolie O'Dell on her personal blog today got me questioning myself again. In it she discusses why not all news bloggers are journalists. She goes into detail on all the points below, so please do read the original post.

While I agree with most of what she says, I have to take issue with some of it. I've noted where that's so below.

1. A journalist is trained in journalism (whether that's a formal J-school or via hands-on newsroom experience).

2. A journalist's work is not overly precious to him

3. A journalist refrains from opinion in news stories.
- I'm not sure about this. I find that, especially in the world of tech news writing, readers often appreciate, and indeed sometimes expect, the personal opinion of the author. While I will always cover news in what I consider to be a professional manner, I find that on a tech blog, a "We think..." paragraph or two often suits the form. As long as it's flagged as such i see no problem with it whatsoever. Indeed, when I check retweets of my posts, there's often one or two people who quote the opinion over the actual news. If I'm ever asked to write any news for a 'traditional' news outlet I'll refrain from it, of course, but blog posts often feel 'wrong' without it.

4. A journalist attributes quotations and cites sources.
- (My response to this part is a rewrite of the original incarnation of this post as I didn't feel the first version explained the point clearly enough - the thrust is identical, however)

Absolutely. A big-name blogger once told me that tech blogging was "A very specific skillset". That blogger was right; a good tech blogger can get hold of a big announcement from its original source and in less than ten minutes write an accurate 150 word piece about the who, what, why, where and when of the story. Not every journalist would be asked to do that and I'm sure some in certain fields would balk at the idea, but for us it comes with the territory.

That said, the pressure to be first - felt by all major tech news sites at one time of another, leads to perfectly competent journalists sometimes thinking "I'll go back and fix that later". Whenever possible I do, although as a part-timer who has other work commitments it sometimes doesn't happen. Note, I'm not talking about third party, external citations here; the occasional link back to a previous, relevant post may be missed but I'd never not cite an actual news source. Heck no.

5. A journalist is obsessed with the Truth.

6. A journalist serves the people.

7. A journalist is a skeptic (and often a critic).

8. A journalist cares about form.

9. A journalist isn’t a spy or a snitch.

10. A journalist is passionate about journalism.
Here's where Jolie delivers the moneyshot quote of the whole post: "A blogger touting his love for journalism is like a high school choir girl saying she loves opera: She might be sincere, but she’s got a hell of a lot to learn."

They're all great points and I wholeheartedly agree with most of them. As someone who did a Broadcasting degree a few years ago and has since stumbled into tech news writing almost by accident, I wouldn't have called myself a journalist a year ago but I do now, and that's down to experience, getting my fingers burned a few times and learning from it.

For me, journalism isn't really about the specifics Jolie goes into; it boils down to this: ethical, original reporting that respects the reader and tells them something new. It's worth noting as well that many so-called professional journalists have more in common with casual bloggers than anything mentioned above. See here and here for examples.

I'm not sure exactly when a blogger becomes a blogging journalist. The lines are pretty blurry but I'll continue to call myself, and conduct myself as, a journalist whether other people agree that I am or not.

Right, back to the man flu.

Image credit: Phil Moore

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Beautiful sunset in south Manchester tonight

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:57:46 -0700

I just had to share...

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Why you should make Mediagazer a daily read

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:01:11 -0700

Back in March, Gabe Rivera of Techmeme fame launched a media news aggregator called Mediagazer. If you have any interest at all in the inner workings of the media, you really should have it on your list of sites to check every day.

Why?

While Techmeme tends to turn up news-focused articles; Mediagazer concentrates more on 'good reads'. Take today's piece about Perez Hilton's falling influence or this story about the resignation of a Washington Post blogger, for example. They're not necessarily breaking news but most articles will teach you something about the media industry while entertaining you along the way.
The media journalism/blogging world has much less of a 'me too' culture than the tech news world has. As a result, Mediagazer isn't a sea of 'discussion' links about news that probably won't matter in a week's time. Most of the links on Mediagazer at any time will be worth a read.

It's certainly not perfect. My main concern is that it's heavily biased towards US media news. This leaves me to wonder what a European-focused version of the site would look like. I wonder the same about Techmeme, but as UK tech news is my bread and butter that's probably out of self interest than anything else. Still, Mediagazer has become a daily part of my online reading over the past few month and if you're anything at all like me you'll love it too.

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