After the double whammy of job losses and paywall failure at Johnston Press, I was interested to read suggestions from business web guru Alex Ogilvie on how newspapers could entice readers in paying for content.

He points out that his every second of online news browsing is monitored and so newspapers have a “fabulous opportunity to up sell me to being a paying online member”. He adds:

If I’m reading the Holiday pages – get me signed up for £2.99 a month to get discounts on holidays, travel and Spanish sombreros. If I’m reading the Cookery pages get me signed up to get discounts at the local Waitrose or Tesco.

The incentive for readers to subscribe to the Scotsman’s paywall in Edinburgh was, according to Alex, a one-off £10 M&S voucher – “hardly an incentive at all” he says, and I have to agree.

But can it really be that simple? Has the answer to the paywall problem been under our noses all along? Could using offers as an incentive for readers to sign up to regular payments be the new business model that newspapers need? What do you think?

Interesting stuff on paidContent:UK about the way some publishers are “re-imagining the magazine” for the Apple iPad. The tablet device has been hailed by some as the saviour of journalism. The jury’s still out on that claim, but the videos with this article show how products such as Marie Claire magazine, the New York Times newspaper and Penguin Books could appear in iPad form with video, slideshows and breaking news.

The most convincing for me were the interactive children’s books where you can shake the tablet to mess up the character’s room or digitally paint on the iPad page. But although the NYT and MC looked good – and I liked the behind-the-scenes video of the Billie Piper photoshoot on the latter – I’m still struggling to imagine white van man sitting in his cab, supping his brew while gently flicking through the pages of The Sun on an iPad.

The day of reckoning is fast approaching – the introduction of the new InDesign Atex system that lets reporters write directly to page, adding their own headlines, etc and so bypassing the need for sub-editors. Allegedly.

This will effectively wipe out a whole stratum of journalists who are the checks and balances of a newspaper. (If you want to know exactly what sub editors do, see here.)

I’m sure you can guess where my sympathies lie. But speaking as a both a writer and a sub, I know you can never have too many eyes on your words.

It’s a sad, dispiriting situation even for me as a freelance let alone for the full-time staff, who are responding with industrial action.

VW campervan in snow

As we shake off the (hopefully) last flakes of snow, I’m looking forward to going camping again. We (husband and I) had great fun cooking our Christmas dinner in our VW campervan, complete with Santa hats and Christmas music.

But as the van has no heating whatsoever, we haven’t been so brave as to camp overnight in it this winter!

However, to keep my pining for camping at bay, I have been writing reviews of gear and gadgets that we’ll be taking with us on our future trips, whether in a tent or the campervan.

I’ve been kindly helped with these reviews by a number of PRs, and would invite any other PRs who represent camping-related products to get in touch.

In today’s digital news, there are tales of two companies using social media: one showing how to do it right and the other how to do it very wrong.

Andy Sharman went on holiday to Tunisia with Thomson Holidays and had a terrible time, so on his return he wrote about it on his blog.

Unfortunately for the firm, his tales of woe ended up high in Google’s rankings when people searched for Thomson and Tunisia. Fortunately for Andy, he received a positive response from the travel company and compensation.

‘Jane’ from Thomson posted an apology on the blog and gave an assurance that further action was being taken. Top marks to Thomson for interacting with their customer on a personal level.

Meanwhile, Habitat has resumed its Twitter service with the words: “This time we want to get it right.”

In June the firm was accused of spamming on the microblogging service by using hashtags of trending topics – including one relating to the Iranian elections – to push marketing messages, a major no-no of Twitter.

As John Waine says in an article in Border Business, on Twitter it’s people first, business later. Those who don’t get this rule will soon find themselves ostracised by the very people they are trying to contact.

What other examples of good or bad social media have you seen?

As if we needed to prove the point that in this hi-tech age you can work from anywhere, this nugget of info has just dropped into my inbox:

Starting immediately, Helen Foster will be in charge of Cosmopolitan’s Health News page from her base in Australia.

Now that’s remote working!

In my experience, tradition print media firms are very reluctant to employ someone they can’t see.

Fortunately, one of my clients is a forward-thinking magazine based 100 miles from my office. They get my skills without having to fork out for any overheads.

There’s no reason why this sort of working model can’t succeed, and in fact, should be encouraged.

These all have their place, but from either a consumer or search engine point of view, quality content is more likely to get potential customers to click on websites.

“A quality photo, pricing and a small blurb will not help you rank in search engines – or close the sale,” says Sofia and suggests adding “detailed, useful information at all stages”.

She also gives some advice on writing your own SEO-friendly content using keywords and keyphrases, but – and this is the important bit – using them in the copy in a “natural, free-flowing way”.

Good tips, but in the brainstorming rush to find those keywords and phrases, the latter sometimes just doesn’t happen. Which, of course, is where professional copywriters can help.

Does this mean we’ve reached the lowest ebb of the ‘dump the subs and let the writers do the headlines’ wave and subbing skills are valued again? Let’s hope so, especially if it’s working ‘remotely’ and not just under the gimlet eye of the chief sub!

Birds then, not planes for aviation enthusiasts?

Ooo, and another: a press release is claiming that “Sales of XXXX sore as people protect themselves from swine flu”. And cue the ’sore point’ gags!