Traditional model of newspaper journalism. Photograph: David Levene

From the moment somebody started writing down what Homer was saying, the long block of text was on the up in European culture. Printing and Protestantism and public education all played their part into making prose the dominant form for communicating news, information and ideas. That, in turn, led to, among other things, to the good old newspaper – a device for communicating news and information that arguably reached its apotheosis in the year 2000.

Since then, though, the move downhill has been surprisingly swift, as a casual glance at newspaper circulations and many profit and loss accounts reveals. The deterioration is a function partly of the advertising market, but really of changes in technology, which mean the future of news media is likely to look radically different from anything that has gone before. Which is where this weekend's #GSxSW hack day came in – an initiative created co-ordinated by my colleague Jemima Kiss and judged by a group of Google and Guardian types including myself. Continue reading...

Andy Gray and Richard Keys ... no offside banter. Photograph: TalkSport/PA

The critical moment in Richard Keys and Andy Gray's radio debut came about 45 minutes in, when Keysey – as he will inevitably be styled in his new chummy man's world on TalkSport – brought us the hot news that you could buy a pack of tiles for £14.99. "Get yourself down to Wickes," said Keys, "for ceramic wall tiles at only £14.99 a pack." It was his first live commercial.

A colleague tweeted that the Keys and Gray show would not work unless the two showed some contrition. Having presented on TalkSport, I can confirm that there is nothing quite like a live commercial to instil a feeling of humility, and underline your place in the media world –and, in the case of Keys and Gray, that they have been very naughty boys. Further contrition not necessary. Although I should like to think the commercial department had a word about Keys rather rushing his later live ad for floor tiles (£8.99 a pack, down from £17.99, in case you missed it). Continue reading...

Daily Mail & General Trust has never been known to run one business agenda when the company could be running three. So the Northcliffe Media owner's call last week for further mergers in the regional press to aid the transition to a brave new world may well have signalled more than just another lurch towards consolidation among the industry's main players.

How that plays out with shareholders and in the offices of Johnston Press, Newsquest and Trinity Mirror will be a matter of fascination and speculation for the industry. In what remains of the readerships and newsrooms of the provincial press, however, it will be a very different story. Continue reading...

Scroll down and it was worth $1bn 10m ago. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Get your Dutch tulips out of storage folks. At first glance it looks mighty like a new tech bubble is upon us, as we manically press for Twitter 'n' Facebook updates on our hyper sensitive touch screen devices. Twitter is for sale for a valuation of, oh, $8bn or $10bn on forecast sales of just $110m this year. Now this is at the top end even by Silicon Valley's exalted standards - last seen when YouTube went for a 100 times sales - a similar multiple - when it was bought by Google.

You can cast your mind back to YouTube and ask whether that purchase has delivered much for Google, given the immense cost of video hosting. Google doesn't like to talk about YouTube numbers (figures are kept secret to protect the guilty), but there was some hope the video sharing site might make some money in 2010. After losing an nearly $500m during 2009. But let's not worry about that just yet. Continue reading...

Chris Evans and Simon Mayo: reformed brat and post-Wright relief. Photograph: Mark Allan/BBC/PA

With it's mellow-toned presenters, husky-voiced newsreaders and easy-listening playlist, daytime Radio 2 remains the sound of middle-aged Britain. As a child I was forced to listen to Terry Wogan at breakfast and endless hours of Acker Bilk and The Carpenters on long car journeys. I hated it. But what do you do when you find yourself too old for Radio 1 and too young for Radio 4? Accept your fate or resist at all costs? After spending 30 years avoiding it, I now find myself magnetically drawn to Radio 2.

I'd put in some groundwork by surviving 90 minutes of Vanessa Feltz's morning show without vomiting in the line of duty. But what would a whole week listening to Radio 2 teach me? First: that Chris Evans is a hell of a lot less annoying than he was in the 90s when he once brought the whole zoo radio concept to its knees by talking about his radiators for three hours and playing just five records. Continue reading...

Talking point ... a leaders' debate in the 2010 general election. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA

The three leaders' debates televised last year successfully attracted first-time voters and those uninterested in politics and should become a regular fixture of general election campaigns, according to a new study.

In general those who watched the debates were more likely to be engaged in the ongoing political campaign. Continue reading...

Casting modesty aside ... aren't we brilliant (today's HuffPo front page)

How we want to run down AOL, and how unwise it is to do so. Somewhere in the folk memory of AOL watchers lies the Time Warner deal (even if the mistake was really made by Jerry Levin and Time Warner) – and the unwise purchase of Bebo. Yet it's too simple to think of AOL as a company doomed to fail, when it has a new chief executive, Tim Armstrong, with a new plan. He wants to bet the future of his digital business on journalism.

The $315m purchase of the Huffington Post may well turn out to be rash or foolish, but you can't fault Armstrong for trying. AOL wants to take on the likes of the Washington Post and the New York Times – even perhaps the Guardian. If he succeeds, old media has a new competitor. If he fails, well at least he tried to reinvent a company still far too dependent on stone-age dial-up internet access for too much of its revenues. Continue reading...

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Jeremy Hunt wants his city-based local TV stations to unleash an army of local "Jeremy Paxmans" to hold local councils to account – but even the most cursory analysis will reveal that what the culture secretary is proposing is to direct the handheld camera at his Labour opponents.

Local TV – according to Nick Shott's review on behalf of Hunt – is only going to be viable in the major conurbations, which are far more likely to be Labour controlled. Conservative councils in the shires – including Surrey county council, which covers Hunt's rural constituency – will face no such scrutiny. Continue reading...

No evidence found of hacking here, guv. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Evening Standard executives are unamused (to put it mildly) by News Corp's suggestion earlier this week that the paper had questions to answer as regards phone hacking. A quick recap - this week it emerged that it was a reporter (who we have declined to name) who once worked for the Standard who was recorded talking to Glenn Mulcaire (of News of the World fame) about how to hack into a mobile phone. That conversation ended up in the hands of the New York Times this summer - and I wrote about how that story was reported yesterday.

A bit more information has emerged from the Standard now. I understand there are no records of the Standard paying Glenn Mulcaire for any work, phone hacking or otherwise. There are no records of unusually large expenses claims by the reporter in question - who at the time was on a contract (rather than on the full time staff) with the title. And the title seems to have records that date back from the Lebedev era to the long period of Associated's ownership with which it can check. Continue reading...

Watching Gareth Bale could cost you less Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Karen Murphy is a bloody minded Portsmouth publican whose marathon legal battle with Sky may - just may - lead to a ripping up of the rules governing the way Premier League and other televised sports rights are sold around Europe. Unhappy with the price Sky charges pubs and clubs for its Sky Sports services (the costs can reach over £1000 a month), Murphy got her hands on a cheaper Greek satellite decoder card (yep, they show plenty of British football in Greece) and started showing matches down at her pub - which was patriotically named The Red, White and Blue.

Like all good British revolutions tools were downed when enforcers from the Premier League went to court. She was told she had broken copyright law because each broadcaster who buys rights from the Premier League has a monopoly over that game in the country. But Murphy fought on, taking her case (remarkably) all the way to the European Court of Justice - where today the prosecutor that advises the court came down squarely on her side. Juliane Kolkott - the Advocate General no less - was pretty clear cut. She said restricting the sale and viewing of sports rights to one country is "contrary to European Union law". Continue reading...

News of the World ... trying to stay out of controversy. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

News Corporation has adopted a new set of high-risk tactics as it tries to defuse the phone-hacking controversy. It is a strategy of limited admission, coupled with an attempt to spread the blame elsewhere – arguing that several other papers were engaged in hacking too. In the PR business they call it 'noise' – where you try to distract from the issue by throwing out all sorts of additional information to shift the agenda away from the original story.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon we were told that News Corp had tipped off the BBC's respected business editor Robert Peston about an intriguing piece of information. Last summer, when the New York Times published a major investigation into phone hacking at the NoW, it released a recording of Glenn Mulcaire (the private investigator it used to employ) talking to an unnamed journalist. You can listen to the recording here, it's on the left side as you scroll. Continue reading...

Jo Whiley will now be on Radio 2 four evenings a week. Photograph: Matt Baron/BEI / Rex Features

Radio listeners don't take kindly to change. So BBC Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan might have a rather larger post bag than normal after switching Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's Sony gold-winning evening show to digital station 6 Music, and replacing them with soon-to-be former Radio 1 DJ, Jo Whiley.

Good news for Whiley, who will now be on Radio 2 four evenings a week and follows the well-worn path of former Radio 1 DJs ending up with big presenting gigs on Radio 2 such as Chris Evans and Simon Mayo. Continue reading...

National Television Awards: Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch was left out in the cold. Photograph: Antony Jones/UK Press

Steven Moffat had a very good 2010. There was the wild success of Sherlock, named by many as their drama of the year, and a rapturous response to his first series as lead writer on Doctor Who – not to mention Matt Smith as the Doctor himself. So few would have bet on Moffat losing the best drama award at the National Television Awards last night. Particularly not to Waterloo Road.

Waterloo Road? Sometimes I do wonder whether the people who vote for the NTAs are completely bonkers. Waterloo Road is fine. A decent middle-of-the-road programme. But not something you'd wait for with anticipation – let alone actually vote for. But there it is, Britain's most popular drama programme, apparently. Unseating Doctor Who, which has won the category every year since 2004, in a year in which Moffat's show has been on sparkling form, and beating Sherlock to boot. It's bizarre. Continue reading...

Leslie Ash and Lee Chapman are considering launching legal action against the News of the World. Photograph: Tim Whitby/PA

Follow the latest on the News of the World phone-hacking scandal as designer Kelly Hoppen accuses the paper of accessing her messages within the last year

Scotland Yard has announced a new invesigation into phone hacking. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

The Met police are to announce new investigation into tabloid phone hacking as the News of the World sack Ian Edmondson. Follow live updates