All credit to the journalists behind The Sport Collective (www.thesportcollective.com) and The Blizzard (www.theblizzard.co.uk), two recently launched ventures that aim to bring quality, in-depth content back to sports writing. Frustrated by the increasing budget, time and SEO constraints of the modern newsroom, the writers have come together to create a destination for intelligent, eclectic copy that follows no editorial line. The early signs are promising - it will be interesting to see how it all plays out with audiences in this era of instant gratification.
- Tring Brewery
We're all massive fans of local real ale - some of us even sport the cliched beard and belly - and the Hertfordshire microbrewery Tring Brewery is doing its best to keep the craft alive. With a range of session beers including Side Pocket, Jack O'Legs and Brock Bitter, it also brews the 7.3% Death or Glory for the more ambitious drinker. And if that doesn't excite you enough, it holds a brewery tour every Thursday evening where you get to drink as much as you want, plus fish and chips, for just £17.50 (thanks to all at the Newspaper Society). Sadly, it is already fully booked up for 2011.
- The launch of TView
Nice idea, this - a pay-per-view movie service on Freeview that enables viewers to pay only for the movies they want to see, rather than take up the annual subscription of a pay-platform. Instead, they will be able to pay by SMS or on the phone if they like the sound of the movie on that night. Given that Freeview is the entry-level digital TV platform and is already in more than 18 million homes, it sounds like quite a good proposition for those who haven't got "posh telly".
- Attack The Block
Joe Cornish's directing debut doesn't launch for another three weeks but already the excitement is building for fans of British comedy. Cornish draws on his own experiences of being mugged while walking home and the film is based around a South London teenage gang defending their council block against alien invasion. It got good reviews at SXSW and looks like being the best British comedy since Hot Fuzz.
AND ONE THING WE DON'T ...
- The Daily Mail
The Daily Mail, never the most cheerful or positive of reads, really has excelled itself with its miserable take on the bank holiday. According to the paper, the double bank holiday of Easter and the royal wedding could cost the nation £30 billion in lost output at a time when the country is still struggling with recession. What does it expect us to do - come in, and also work weekends? Given that famously "we're all in it together", it'll be nice for those of us who have jobs to spend some time with the growing ranks of the unemployed.