It’s been quite a year for media, and one topic that’s never been out of the limelight is the ongoing debate on whether content (especially print) is moving to a free model or whether the majority is always destined to be paid-for.  Three years ago, the free-era came into its own with the launch of thelondonpaper, London Lite, Sport magazine and then subsequently Shortlist the following year.  The Evening Standard suffered because of it and everyone was heralding the freesheet era. 

However, three years on and a lot has changed; both thelondonpaper and London Lite have closed while the Evening Standard remains the lone evening freesheet, but who’s to know how long that can survive?  Meanwhile Shortlist has been the success story, going from strength-to-strength culminating in the launch of Stylist last month. 

From my view, the afternoon freesheet market does not work but with the likes of Sport, Shortlist and Stylist, if you have strong content that is more tailored to a reader so that it focuses on his/her interests that is where the real potential lies and enables freesheets to exist and become successful business models.  So what next?  I don’t think there are many other verticals that have the scale and durability to work in the market, but with the proliferation of technology and gadgets I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a fortnightly tech freesheet on the horizon.

At the same time as this all happening in the print landscape there is talk of online doing the complete opposite and going from an established free content ad-funded model to a paid-for medium.  Spearheaded by Rupert Murdoch, where online is concerned, this year has been about the potential of micro-charging, with a particular focus on newspaper websites.  It takes a brave man, in my opinion, to think that people who have been accustomed to receive something for free for a number of years now will be happy to pay for the same level of content as before.  Unless everyone agrees and follows suit users will surely just move on to their next favourite site that is still free?  I think it is a really interesting concept and model but from my point of view I think content would have to be exceptional and unique to the site for there to be any chance of users moving to a subscription or micro-payment model from the current free one. 

Are there any sites out there that are currently free that you would pay for? I’m not so sure…..

I was out at dinner last night and I was thinking how lucky we are within our industry that we get the opportunity to go to some of the best restaurants in London.  But which is the best?  There are over 5,500 restaurants in London according to the Yellow Pages, but let’s face it, none of us have time to find the golden nugget within that vast list and our exercise regime would be seriously compromised if we did!  So, I want to create a Maxus and Friends Top Table, if you will.  Where have you been, what restaurants do you like, and why?  I will list my Top 5 London restaurants and also my most over-rated restaurant as well and I want you to do the same.  Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

My Top 5 Restaurants in London

Le Gavroche   10   
The Greenhouse  9.5
Corrigan’s Mayfair  9
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon 9 
Pied a Terre   8.5

most over-rated restaurant

Cipriani’s   0 (Never go there, it’s terrible, although I did see Mathieu Flamini, who I proceeded to call Michel for 10 minutes……not cool……)

After another successful Friends of Maxus event this week I have been left pondering the evening’s topic.  It revolved around the speaker’s belief that “News is the new rock ‘n roll” especially for the youth generation.  The part of the talk that left me intrigued is, if this is true, how has this happened?  Are the youth of today more interested in news than they were ten, twenty, thirty years ago?  I don’t believe that there would be such a shift in such a short space of time. 

However, one thing I do believe though is that the availability of free online short form content may have heightened the youth generation’s interest in news.  An interesting comparison is that the Sun, a popular newspaper, outsells The Guardian, a quality newspaper, by almost 9 to 1.  However, in terms of online, guardian.co.uk has over 2.2m more UK unique users than thesun.co.uk.  The availability of free bitesize news at our finger tips in digestible chunks whether it be video, image or text has revolutionised the way we consume media.  However, with the talk of micro-charging for online content, especially prevalent with NI’s plans to launch the Sunday Times online, is this good thing going to be taken away from us?

Anyway back to my main point.  From this, it has to be said the youth of the today have it pretty sweet.  I’m not going to go into the whole, “back in my day…” (maybe a little), but the modern “yoof” has a mobile, a PS3, a netbook, fibreoptic broadband, a digital camera, a PVR, online bank account, three social network profiles and easy access to any content they want whenever they want.  When I was younger, I had an amiga computer with sensible soccer and a time allowance on the home phone!  Surely the current youth generation can’t look back in fifteen, twenty years and say the same thing can they?

A lovely Friday afternoon got even better today when the exceptionally generous Nick Kelvin shouted us some summer refreshment in the form of ice lollies.  This was the first one of the season and much appreciated.  Ice creams and Ice Lollies really are one of those things that you absolutely love no matter if you’re 7 or 77.

From that I wanted to get a steer on what people’s Top 3 Ice Cream/Lollies were of all time.  For me, it has to be the following:

1. Orange Calippo
2. Feast (original of course)
3. Fab

For me that is one hell of a Top 3 but please feel free to post your Top 3 as well, as I’m sure a few of you will be annoyed by the exclusion of Mini Milks!

January is a month where the majority of us deny ourselves life’s guilty pleasures.  There is good work done by detoxing but let’s forget about that for now, I love eating out and think restaurants are fantastic.  We are very lucky in our line of work that we get to go to excellent places throughout the year.  So pooling all our resources together I want to know all the restaurants that you want to try in 2009 or recommend from 2008.

The first restaurant I want to go to is one I saw in the professional kitchen challenge on Masterchef last week and it looked superb fun.  It is a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca, anyone been?  Apart from that I would also really like to go to Gordon Ramsey at Hospital Road (bargain), Roka (doesn’t count if it was just cocktails), The Square and Hix’s Oyster and Chop House.

In terms of where I recommend going from my experience in 2008, L’Atelier De Joel Robuchon, The Greenhouse, Marcus Wareing At The Berkeley, Le Gavroche, Clos Maggiore, Elena’s L’Etoile and Tsunami were all awesome.  Any recommendations?

So another year has passed and into 2009 we go and with it the same old New Year Resolutions……

I am interested to find out how many people are still sticking to this tradition.  I for one have somehow decided to give up things.  That is not the issue, it is the reason why I decided to do this in January.  After all it is one of the most depressing months; it’s cold, dark, money is a bit tight and it’s at least another five months until I receive some more presents!

This year I intend to give up one thing completely and also change a few other things to hopefully improve my general well-being…..

Firstly, I must give up smoking, apparently it is terribly bad for you (no one told me this) and I must stop it.  I have been smoking for about eight years and I think the routine is the hardest to block out.  Anyway, five days in and I have had no cigarettes at all.  I have not faced the gauntlet of the night out drinking yet though and this is going to be a very tough challenge.  Anyway I will keep you updated on my progress.

I also intend to consistently go to the gym 3-4 times a week this year, eat healthier (bar the Chicken Tikka Bhuna with Rice, Naan and Bhaji’s that Shebab-O-Bab served up for me last night – a tiny slip) and drink less in the week…….and of course buy more sweater vests in 2009.

What New Year Resolutions are you pursuing?

With the new Premiership season starting this Saturday I thought it would be fun to see what people’s predictions are for the coming season.  Now, as a die-hard Villa fan I would love nothing more than the boys in Claret and Blue to race to victory this year but as Steve Sidwell is not the complete player yet I don’t think that’s going to happen!

As usual the Big Four look likes staying as The Big Four, no matter how much our MD argues Spurs’ case to the contrary.  To be honest if they can improve on last year’s 11th I’ll be impressed!  So, what I want to know is what will the Top 4 be and who will get relegated?

Here are my thoughts:

Top 4

1. Chelsea
2. Man United
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal

Relegated

Stoke
Hull
Bolton

Think I’ve got it completely wrong?  Then Blog who you think will make the Top Four and get Relegated.  Whoever gets it bang on Wins…………………………….Pride

I am pleased to see that there is some interesting programming back on our screens again on Monday nights.  I’m not talking about ITV1’s Send In The Dogs (although those drug-sniffing pooches are incredible) but BBC1’s Dragons’ Den.  After watching the last three episodes it has occurred to me that the Dragons are investing more and more in people’s businesses than ever before. 

This is because most of the products that receive investment are then sold to consumers on the premise of “As Seen on Dragons’ Den…..”  None more so than the indie band Hamfatter, more misplaced than Theo Paphitis on Britain’s Got Talent, yet the band received investment from Peter Jones, and since then have achieved thousands of online downloads and are apparently set to sign to Simon Cowell’s SyCo Label.

Being that it looks easier than ever to achieve investment from the Dragons, what idea would you pitch to the Dragons to seek investment, and the chance to become a multimillionaire?  Now I’m sure no one is going to give their lifelong business idea away here but it would be interesting to know people’s thoughts on where there are gaps in the UK consumer market that could be exploited for investment from one of the five Dragons (but preferably not Duncan Bannatyne……)

To start proceedings here is the idea I would pitch to the Dragons.

Private Members Sports Bar called “12th Man” – You would think there are lots of these around but believe me there aren’t, sure there are sports clubs that will also have a TV in their bar to watch sport but I am talking about an upmarket Private Members Sports Bar that mixes business with watching Sport in the finest luxury.  A lot of people’s evenings revolve around watching sport and if you’re like me there are only so many nights you can stand in the beer-sodden hovels of Sports Cafe, Sirrocco and Cheers Bar…..I want a bar where I can always get a table no matter what the time and that is where 12th Man comes in, mixed with Poker Evenings, Race Nights and Betting Tipster seminars it will revolutionise the Private Members Sports Bar market.

So what’s your pitch to the Dragons?

It is with trepidation that I write this.  How does one convert the funniest conversation ever had?  It got so bad in fact I had to scribe things down during our chat.  Let me take you back to the beginning.  It was not the dawn of time it was only last night that I met a human more amusing than any other examined before.  This gent has so many strings to his bow it is unbelievable.

From what started with such throw away questions as “What are you doing this weekend?” ended with “What exactly does your Marmalord Super Hero outfit look like!?”

Emily was the catalyst.  From a jovial story about holding a baby monkey called “baby monkey” this particular man then went on to ask if we had ever been to Monkey World.  A strange question in anyone’s book.  He then went on to talk about an Albino Gorilla called “Snowflake.”  That produced numerous guffaws which then made me think if this guy has this in his locker what else has he got.  Well what we found was much much more.

It started out as a joke to send a copy of a random mag to a mate.  What it turned into was a lifelong b2b subscription.  I am talking about no other than the global title Poultry International, after reading the title he fell in love with it.  As a b2b title the company wanted to know more about the reader and asked how many chicken boilers he went through of which he said, “2 million” to their response “is that all?”  With quick thinking the phrase “per month” was born – because of this sizeable production Poultry International could do nothing but send a cheque for $20 to Pixie Poultry Ltd, which I’m sure you will not be surprised to learn is a fake company.  Along with this he also received a free subscription to Poultry International, Pig International and Feed International (which he chooses not to read, for obvious reasons).

This lead us to think “What else has he got?”   Well…..quite a lot.  All I need to say is www.marmaland.com

What started off as a present for his Mother turned into an obsession that included a 400-strong marmalade jar collection cascading down his stairs at home that lead to the website and to the creation of the Marmalord (who has an open-faced yellow crash helmet and large M on his chest with cape) and his sidekick the Marmalad (think a fatter Robin who has eaten to much Marmalade).  Even crazier than this was the creation of the Marmalade Jar Reader Marusan Moo Chicki Chicki – who sources interesting information about Marmalade Jars and then relays readers to inquisitive consumers…..mainly Americans….

All of this in the middle of the Honey International Festival in Hatfield….there is no night for this man there is no time to sleep and all I ask is to visit the site yourself (www.marmaland.com) but at the same time please ignore Polly Anne’s comments about marmalade, they do things differently in Albania…………