London listings magazine Time Out (www.timeout.co.uk) is to streamline the staff of its online operation in a bid to lower operating costs. It has taken the move in light of the general downturn in internet advertising that has shaken many sites. Meanwhile, Time Out’s online rival, london.co.uk, appears to have gone into time-warp limbo with many of its features not updated. A recent glance at the site showed it was still showing what to do on May Day Bank Holiday while its comedy section listed events that finished in that month.
The bombing in Ealing seems to have been totally ignored by local website This Is Ealing (www.thisisealing.co.uk) despite the event happening on its patch. The site, part of the Fish 4 network and owned by Newsquest, seemed unable to report on the event. Visitors to its ‘latest news’ section on Monday would have found no mention of the bombing. This highlights how important it is for sites to be updated throughout the week, not once a week. As a brand, the ‘This Is’ series promises to provide all the essential information someone needs for a region, but it seems that when something really big breaks, such as the Ealing bomb, they are no match for national, regularly updated sites.
GWR, owner of classical radio station Classic FM, is to refocus its online activities with up to 50 jobs being lost. Local information site Koko (www.koko.com) has recently been streamlined so that it now only features a business finder, job finder and e-mail service as its main service. A new site will appear later with more features.
Gardening website Greenfingers (www.greenfingers.com) has acquired 365 Corporation’s Gardening365 database of users. As well as this, visitors to Gardening365 will now be directed to Greenfingers. The move will allow 365 to focus more on its other online projects, which include Football365.
Anyone looking for inexpensive images to use on a website may be interested in this offer from Art Today (www.arttoday.com). For a fee of £100 a year, the site offers more than 1.5 million photographs and clip-art images. There is also a seven-day access deal for £5. While Art Today may not have as comprehensive a choice of celebrities and personalities as other online libraries, it does offer some of the best graphics and images around. Hopefully others will follow Art Today’s ‘as much as you like for one fee’ approach.
Leslie Bunder
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