Chark Blog - Change change change

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

It was not so long ago that Google was revered as a whiter than white crusader against evil, an upholder of right against might, of menschlichkeit against corporatism. That image has changed. Has it changed permanently?

They have managed to alienate nearly all of the publishing industry. A colleague has now alerted me to Bob Cringely writing on the PBS website. It appears that now they have pissed off their advertising clients. 'Click fraud' is an obvious and very dangerous development. Google seems ill-equipped or unwilling to deal with it. The very basis of their prosperity and credibility is being challenged.

They are also bloody awful at communication. Weren't they meant to be helping the world not creating a job's-worth humourless soviet e-bureaucracy?

And on the subject of change, one of the key planks of scholarly research is peer review. The advent of the Internet is potentially opening up possibilities for wider, deeper, more open review. Nature is undertaking trials and running a debate. Even if you are not a scientist I do recommend you check this out. It is a sign of more change but a change which is being thoroughly road-tested. Google, please note.

Tonight I am attending the awards ceremony for the Orange Prize for the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English. Our shortlisted author is Carrie Tiffany. Fingers crossed for her this evening.

And back to Nature. The editor, the esteemed Dr Phil Campbell, has just received a bottle of white wine in the post. At the risk of breaking a confidence or breaching copyright I am pasting in his email on the subject:

I have on my desk a bottle of white wine - unopened, so far. It is called 'Nature!' The typography is almost identical to our logo, though the first letter is upper case.

The full label reads:

Nature!

According to Gabriel Escande

It's different. Under the capsule, no bubbles, no foam. No cheating, just fruit.

Savour it, devour it, drink it. Fruity, cool, smooth, lively, easy and simply good. No fuss.

A taste from the aromatic Mediterranean 'garrigue'. This is because it's made in the vineyards, not in factories. By men, not by machines. Because it does you good.

Because our body is thirsty but our spirit is hungry. Because nature's like that....

Recommendation: we have two options:

1. Sue them to hell and back.

2. Hire their copywriters and set up an exchange subscription.

My recommendation is that we drink it at the next board meeting and then decide.

6/6/2006 10:23:08 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Magnificently purple frano-oeno-prose on the wine company's website:

Évidemment, dans cet univers vertical, l’étincelle est inévitable. De l’union du ciel, dieu mâle et barbu, et de la terre, matrice pure mais sauvage, naît le fruit. Les antennes gourmandes de la vigne agacent les nuages, les feuilles font chanter le vent, ses racines plongent, fouillent, s’immiscent au plus profond du grès, des schistes, du marbre et des calcaires. Le cep catalyse la puissance des forces divergentes mais complémentaires. À mi-chemin du ciel et de la terre, le grain de raisin fait la synthèse. La pulpe, les rafles, la peau emmagasinent toute l’énergie de ce choc, de ce contact, de cet équilibre de forces.

Oliver

6/8/2006 12:26:48 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Nature vs. Nature. Where have I seen this scenario before? :)

I recall an incident back in the 20th century in which a board game and a campaign setting had the same name. The respective companies came to an agreement in which each would promote the other's publication. Both products were gone before a year was up.

I recommend that Vino Natura buy some ad space in Natura Periodica, and both parties agree that wine and magazine consortium are too different to be mistaken for each other by any reasonable person.

True Story: Once there were two companies. One published games, the other made fishing gear. Both were known as Aalon Hill. The fishing gear company would get phone calls from people wanting to buy their games. So they sued the game publisher for having a name that too closely resembled their name. The game publisher would get calls about their fishing gear, and give the caller the phone number for the other Avalon Hill. Guess who lost the suit?

The fishing equipment Avalon Hill went bust soon after. The game publisher Avalon Hill was bought up by Hasbro, who subsequently assigned its assets to Wizards of the Coast. So at least the game publisher still exists after a fashion.

Alan Kellogg

6/8/2006 7:47:28 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

My colleagues drank thwe wine and declared it delicious.

Richard Charkin

Welcome

This is it. I am officially entering the blogosphere. This is not a Macmillan blog, but Macmillan will certainly feature heavily. The idea is that when we need to share anything from company strategy through news, to talk about new ideas or to help us learn from our successes and our mistakes, we can all blog about it here. This means no more email newsletters from me. Instead, you can read (and blog) all about it here. And don't forget to bookmark this page and to let colleagues know all about it.

The broader the audience the more effective this blog becomes.

And it becomes a lot more interesting if you join the conversation... so don't be shy.

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