By Jeremy Wagstaff (my syndicated Loose Wire column.) As I write this two significant events are taking place: Google has said it will tie up with the American Booksellers Association—the U.S. trade group for independent bookstores—to sell ebooks. And there’s a conference in Bristol celebrating 75 years of the Penguin paperback. Both are milestones. And … Read more
By Jeremy Wagstaff (this is a copy of my column for newspapers) If The Wall Street Journal is to be believed—and as a former contributor I’ve no reason to doubt it—the best way to get decent hotel service these days is to tweet about how bad it is. And reading the piece made me realize … Read more
I’m in the Philippines to look at their preparations for an automated evoting election in May. This morning’s visit to the hotel’s business center wasn’t a good omen: no antivirus software on their computers. This might not tell us very much about the potential for disaster in an election which is supposed to be entirely … Read more
I’m responsible again this year to try to track down Asia-based journalists interested in a fellowship, funded by The Wall Street Journal Asia in association with New York University, for the three-semester masters program in business and economic reporting at the NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. If you fit that bill, or know someone … Read more
For those listening to my slot on Radio Australia’s Breakfast Show, here’s what I was talking about: Inauguration fever: How it may have tipped the way we use the Net, just like the election did. (People who weren’t there weren’t googling, they were twittering and facebooking.) ‘Dark ages’ White House:The White House runs on ‘six … Read more