Lax

Things have been a bit lax around here lately. There was a time we would have seen several updates a year here. Alas, that is no longer the case.
In recent months my days have been spent working for a Government body. It leaves little time for musings on the state of the nation, the price of crisps, etc., and so on.
Hopefully that explains the louche, slouching posture adopted here in recent months. Be under no illusions, that will continue. I'm gainfully employed for a few months yet so you'll just have to make your own entertainment.
That said, I'm still finding time to enjoy the sort of thing reproduced above.

Margin for error?

If you've ever wondered why your local newspaper needs to trim its staff numbers so regularly there's an article in the latest NUJ magazine (edition not yet online at time of writing) which may fill in some of the blanks. It reports on the 2008 profit margins of some of the country's biggest newspaper groups.

According to The Journalist Trinity Mirror posted a margin of 16.66%, Johnston Press a figure of 24.14% and Gannett UK 30.25%.

The same article reports that Tesco, which recently posted record profits, had an operating profit margin of just 5.5%.

Such media margins are nothing new, but they are thrown into stark relief by today's economic woes.

Some doomsayers believe the massive jobs cull now sweeping through Britain's regionals spells their end. Whether it does or not remains to be seen. But I do find myself wondering whether an industry content to cream off such huge portions and then cry poverty as it lays off workers deserves to survive.

The Photo Police

There was a piece here a little while ago about steps to prevent photographers from taking pictures of police officers. This one at chickyog.net shows an enthusiastic police medic and might just fall foul of those moves.

clipped from www.chickyog.net Police medic in job creation scheme

Abe

As the G20 gather in London and Obama jets in, get a load of this. Manchester's Abraham Lincoln memorial has today been made-over. Now sporting 'True Yank' knuckle-dusters, a baseball cap and plenty of hip-hop bling, Abe looks quite the dude.

Sorry for the low-fi image. There's a better one here. The Manchester Evening News doesn't seem to know quite what its all about but Urbis, the city's exhibition centre, does.