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<img alt="" height="336" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2537/3853303903_4b308fd27a.jpg" width="450" /> Something happened on 9 August. It started with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-feral-beast-tina-to-launch-british-beast-1769396.html">a small announcement</a> in The Independent (UK) that Briton and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown would be bringing her aggregator, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com">The Daily Beast</a>, to the UK. Startled by this announcement, and certain that since it appeared in a newspaper of (relative) repute, it was legitimate, I took to the pages of Econsultancy to opine. I'll say it: I was excited. The story went up and stayed up for about an hour and a half. Then came the recoil: In-the-know sources emailing Econsultancy to dispute the story. The Independent had gotten the story very, very wrong. And now I had egg on my face. The story had still managed to get considerable play on the web. Industry sites, taken aback by the announcement, began practically live-blogging the announcement and subsequent updates as new information was learned. I realised that in the UK there was an interest in having a hometown aggregator. The Daily Beast non-announcement touched a nerve. But what does this have to do with Slatest? Nothing and everything. <img alt="" height="254" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3491/3853323355_f74a27505a.jpg" width="450" /> You see, despite its faults, it's still something. I know America is the land of the aggregator, but it's also the land of the anti-aggregator. Organisations are being founded <a href="http://www.journalismonline.com/home.php">around the basis</a> of shutting out aggregators. As that happens, new aggregators are founded. Why can't the UK have an aggregator like <a href="http://www.gawker.com">Gawker</a> or <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com">The Daily Beast</a>? Gawker founder and Brit Nick Denton said at the Aspen Institute in July that he wouldn't start one in the UK in a million years. But why? I may be re-using this quote, from a POLITICO article on the event, but it's perfect: <blockquote> Conversely, Denton said he’d never set up shop in England. “Every single day, those editors get up and try to kill each other,” said Denton. Not so in the U.S. </blockquote> There are a lot of reasons why something like this couldn't work in the UK - and I'm among those who <a href="http://econsultancy.com/blog/4181-aggregation-in-the-uk-can-it-work">aren't optimistic</a> - but that doesn't mean you should throw in the towel. As a "starter aggregator", a site like Slatest, which aggregates articles from well-known MSM outlets, would be a good foot forward for the UK. Start aggregating posts from The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and other major titles. See where that gets you. (Note: Stay away from The Times of London. Uncle Rupert is dead-set on <a href="http://www.silobreaker.com/news-corp-wants-allies-in-paywall-wars-and-this-is-legal-how-5_2262543503013707776">running his media empire into the ground</a> with paywalls.) The UK is awash with digital entrepreneurs. Thanks to my friend <a href="http://www.yiannopoulos.net">Milo Yiannopoulos</a>, himself an entrepreneur and writer for TechCrunch, I've been introduced to a lot of interesting people doing great things with the web. Eventually someone's going to figure out that even a Gawker Lite is better than nothing at all. Right?

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2537/3853303903_4b308fd27a.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="336" /> Something happened on 9 August. It started with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-feral-beast-tina-to-launch-british-beast-1769396.html">a small announcement</a> in The Independent (UK) that Briton and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown would be bringing her aggregator, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com">The Daily Beast</a>, to the UK. Startled by this announcement, and certain that since it appeared in a newspaper of (relative) repute, it was legitimate, I took to the pages of Econsultancy to opine. I'll say it: I was excited. The story went up and stayed up for about an hour and a half. Then came the recoil: In-the-know sources emailing Econsultancy to dispute the story. The Independent had gotten the story very, very wrong. And now I had egg on my face. The story had still managed to get considerable play on the web. Industry sites, taken aback by the announcement, began practically live-blogging the announcement and subsequent updates as new information was learned. I realised that in the UK there was an interest in having a hometown aggregator. The Daily Beast non-announcement touched a nerve. But what does this have to do with Slatest? Nothing and everything.  <img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3491/3853323355_f74a27505a.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="254" /> You see, despite its faults, it's still something. I know America is the land of the aggregator, but it's also the land of the anti-aggregator. Organisations are being founded <a href="http://www.journalismonline.com/home.php">around the basis</a> of shutting out aggregators. As that happens, new aggregators are founded. Why can't the UK have an aggregator like <a href="http://www.gawker.com">Gawker</a> or <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com">The Daily Beast</a>? Gawker founder and Brit Nick Denton said at the Aspen Institute in July that he wouldn't start one in the UK in a million years. But why? I may be re-using this quote, from a POLITICO article on the event, but it's perfect: <blockquote> Conversely, Denton said he’d never set up shop in England. “Every single day, those editors get up and try to kill each other,” said Denton. Not so in the U.S. </blockquote> There are a lot of reasons why something like this couldn't work in the UK - and I'm among those who <a href="http://econsultancy.com/blog/4181-aggregation-in-the-uk-can-it-work">aren't optimistic</a> - but that doesn't mean you should throw in the towel.  As a "starter aggregator", a site like Slatest, which aggregates articles from well-known MSM outlets, would be a good foot forward for the UK. Start aggregating posts from The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and other major titles. See where that gets you. (Note: Stay away from The Times of London. Uncle Rupert is dead-set on <a href="http://www.silobreaker.com/news-corp-wants-allies-in-paywall-wars-and-this-is-legal-how-5_2262543503013707776">running his media empire into the ground</a> with paywalls.)  The UK is awash with digital entrepreneurs. Thanks to my friend <a href="http://www.yiannopoulos.net">Milo Yiannopoulos</a>, himself an entrepreneur and writer for TechCrunch, I've been introduced to a lot of interesting people doing great things with the web. Eventually someone's going to figure out that even a Gawker Lite is better than nothing at all. Right?

2009-08-24T23:25:23+01:00

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In the face of defeat, America's news outlets continue to find ways to innovate. Mind you, they aren't ground-breaking innovations. But they're innovations none-the-less. This week online news magazine <a href="http://www.slate.com">Slate</a> launched a new aggregator called <a href="http://slatest.slate.com/">Slatest</a>. It's not great, but at least it's something. I just wish I could say the same for British media.

false 4493

Even a bad news aggregator is better than none at all false

2009-08-26T11:01:00+01:00

even-a-bad-news-aggregator-is-better-than-none-at-all

2009-08-25T13:40:49+01:00

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