#irishtimes.com

[macron-2017]

Former favourite for presidency François Fillon discredited by payments made to wife

[fyeahhozier]

Raw and raunchy Hozier serves up full-throated display

"From Eden was driven by Hozier’s rapier guitar, rumbling cello and celestial backing vocals. Jackie And Wilson was a superb slice of soulful frivolity, and To Be Alone was a neatly concentrated display of blinding bluesology. Someone New was another deadly sin that went down as smooth as well-aged bourbon.

This guy could have years in him." [...]

[wearestarcom-blog]

Radio and Newspapers – an unlikely marriage?

After much speculation, the popular former Off the Ball presenters will soon be returning to the airwaves. However, the famous five will make their return in a somewhat different broadcasting format than expected; they will form a partnership with The Irish Times.

The partnership highlights the fact that newspapers are no longer as we know them. Although many reports predict the demise of newspapers, this is not the case. Newspapers are simply changing from the former print version into various different formats and offering consumers valuable content in new innovative ways. This was touched on in our 2013 outlook document, where we refer to newspapers as news media, recognising the ever changing face of the paper. But what does this mean?

Newspapers are increasingly under pressure from their two revenue streams as circulation continues to fall, and so does advertising. The changing nature of newspapers as they adapt to the digital environment means they are constantly trying to diversify their online offering. The Irish Times new partnership is the perfect example of how a news media organisation can boost its online engagement and ultimately create valuable content. The Irish Independent has already signed a partnership, where they broadcast footage from RTE. As technology improves, this broadcasting will become more common. Fionann Sheehan said recently in a talk that he ultimately wants to be able to film and edit coverage as it happens. This isn’t journalism and newspapers as we know it.

All this brings us back to what news media must do. They must create content worth paying for, beyond their current offering.  We can already see popular news titles, such as The New York Times, in other countries having success through online pay structures, essentially valuing their own content. Ireland will soon be following in their footsteps. Creating these new and innovative online offerings gives scope for the introduction of future paywall structures.

Looking at The Irish Times partnership with the former Off the Ball team, we can see just how much this could potentially benefit the title. Off The Ball brought an average of 43,000 listeners per show, with 11,000 of these being in the 15-34 year old age demographic- an audience The Irish Times and most newspapers struggle to capture. The partnership also gains the title extended reach outside of the Dublin area, where over half of their readers are based. 11,000 Off The Ball listeners come from rural areas and 14,000 come from outside of Leinster. The audience profile of The IrishTimes.com is somewhat different than the audience profile of the printed version with 46% of users falling into the 15-34 age bracket, compared to 24% of the printed versions readers. Could this mean that these younger audiences may start to read the printed version as well? Could the online readers be converted to print readers? We don’t know yet, but it is something we have seen before - The New York Times increased readership of their print version after the introduction of their paywall on their online site. Only time will tell what the partnership will bring for the Irish Times but we believe the key to news media is exactly this creating unique and engaging content to bring new audiences and extend their reach. Ultimately though they need to attribute a value to their platforms... good news doesn't come for free. 

[monologueinterieur-blog]

The tyranny of the iTunes play counter

The tyranny of the iTunes play counter. By DONALD CLARKE

irishtimes.com

[i-alcocer]

Para quienes hacen promesas o dicen sus propósitos de año nuevo cada navidad. Ahora ya saben porqué nunca los cumplen... Why make New Year resolutions if genes and environment decide our behaviour rather than free will?

The new year is a time for resolutions. You promise to take up jogging, spend more time with friends, do good works or maybe smile a little more frequently. But are you fundamentally deluding yourself into thinking you can change?

A growing body of research suggests that much of our behaviour is determined by either our genes or our environment, leaving little room for personal choice. The age-old notion of “free will” is under attack, boosted by examinations of brain activity during decision-making.

An influential 2007 study, which monitored people’s brains using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), suggested people became conscious of making a decision only after the relevant neurons had fired into action. Neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes, who asked participants to hit a button with their left or right hand, was able to predict their decisions seven seconds before they were even aware of making them.

Earlier this year, a series of projects got under way in what is the single biggest research programme on free will. The $4.4 million (€3.4m) four-year initiative is backed by the John Templeton Foundation in Pennsylvania, which funds research spanning theology and science.

Philosopher Alfred Mele of Florida State University, who is charged with overseeing the project, says neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists are helping to deepen our understanding of an issue that was once the preserve of religious thinkers. Speaking to Nature in September, he admitted that if studies like Haynes’ could be reproduced to predict a range of decisions “that would be a threat to free will”... http://bit.ly/s6aWe6

[goodairs]

Such is the reality of living in a country where only 39 per cent of the adult population has a bank account. Argentinians, by and large, conduct their lives without the assistance of daily banking, mortgages, car loans, overdrafts or credit cards.

"Living without banking," Irishtimes.com

Because: Yeah, crazy. Since coming to Buenos Aires, the Argentine economy has become one of my primary fascinations. It started with little annoyances and confusions like, how come there are so many fake bills floating around, and the ATMs even dispense them? Why do the ATMs always run out of cash? Why do I have to pay everything in cash? Why does Claro, my cell phone service provider, not allow me to pay with an international credit card because only national credit cards are accepted? Then I started to see the bigger picture of this all and learning things such as the above statistic, or that the only way to buy property here is to show up with literally a suitcase of cash. Financially, this is a totally different world from the U.S. It's a world in which an economic crash in 2001 slashed about everyone's life savings in half and left them with even less trust in banks, and one where many residents nonchalantly and matter-of-fact predict another similar burst to happen very soon. 

In related news, this happened Friday. "Argentina Peso Weakens Beyond 4 Per Dollar First Time on Record" (via BusinessWeek).