Puffbox

The Press Association is the engine which powers the UK news machine. In effect it's a cooperative owned by the UK's regional and national newspapers. It has noticed that, as funds get tighter, its members have stopped reporting on local democracy - council meetings and the like. And it's working on a proposal to fill [...] read on »

Last week, I shared the general sense of shock around the blogs at news about Birmingham council's new website: 3.5 years late, and costing £2.8 million. But last night, to my great surprise, I came across BirminghamNewsroom.com - a WordPress-powered website for the council's press office, launched a couple of months back. It's based on iCompany [...] read on »

How many central government websites offer RSS feeds these days? The good news is that of the 20 departments represented in the Cabinet, I could only find one that didn't. But it was a bit of a surprise to see how few offered 'full text' feeds, as opposed to 'summary only'. I visited each of the [...] read on »

I felt a very different atmosphere at the second annual UK Government Barcamp (aka UKGC09), held at the Ministry of Justice's offices in central London yesterday. Last year's event buzzed with potential; all the talk was of things that we could or should do. This time, certainly the sessions I attended anyway, the talk was [...] read on »

Well, here's a first. Government press officers haven't been the most enthused by new media. I'm told that's changing, slowly but surely. But it's quite startling to see a press office announcing a blog which hasn't even been launched yet - and even better, syndicating the content via press release! Clearly the Scotland Office are pretty [...] read on »

Flicking across the news channels tonight, I bumped into recorded coverage of Wednesday's Lords Communications Committee. You had the BBC's Frank Gardner and Sky's Tim Marshall, plus a couple of other senior journalists, giving their frank opinions on the state of media, politics and government. I only caught the last few minutes; it looks like [...] read on »

Thanks to Shane at the Telegraph for highlighting the new Daily Telegraph style guide. Written (or more accurately, drafted?) by Simon Heffer, it's online now for consultation, prior to hard-copy publication in a few months. As you might expect it's a curious mix of the web-friendly and the conservative (with a small, and probably also a [...] read on »

We're exceptionally proud to unveil the latest Puffbox site: a new corporate website - or indeed, two - for the Wales Office. And as you'd probably expect from us, it's not just another government website. In late 2007, I was invited over to the Wales Office's Whitehall HQ. I hope they don't mind me saying, their [...] read on »