A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

Thought for the Week 

“A better informed world is a better world.” Ben Bradlee, then editor of the Washington Post and the man in charge of the Watergate expose, in his 1986 interview for Poynter’s Newsleaders series, a quote that seemed appropriate this week following the sad news that this highly respected journalist passed away at the age of 93.

Weekly High

Facebook is no stranger to bad press, as we have frequently reported on these very blog pages. This week, though, Mark Zuckerberg, the mastermind behind the big blue network, managed to score a significant number of plus points by conducting an entire Q&A session in China, in Mandarin Chinese. The monolithic website has been banned in China since 1999, meaning this is a very clever way of winning over the hearts and minds of the nation’s public.

 

Weekly Low

By now most people in Briton have had a friend, or five, try to persuade them to join Uber- the taxi service offering cheap fares and free credit to those who get others to sign up. The company has been having less joy in Europe, though, with an outright ban min Germany and France issuing a €10,000 fine for being unregulated. In a bid to claw back custom, Uber decided to partner up with a modelling agency and offer 20-minute rides with beautiful girls at the wheel to the citizens of Lyon, and asked ‘who said women can’t drive?’ Cue an international uproar, accusations of sexism, the deletion of said content, and the following tweet… embarrassing.

We have cancelled the partnership as on this occasion we clearly misjudged the situation. We apologise to anyone that has been offended.
— Uber Lyon (@UberLyon) October 21, 2014

Stories to keep an eye on

Council leaders across the country are calling for a u-turn on rules and regulations preventing parents from taking children out of school for holidays as a result of vacation prices out of term time.
Facebook is to launch a new iOS app- Rooms- wherein ‘rooms’ can be set up for picture, content and text posts on specific subjects, and users can comment anonymously.
Media Week’s annual awards took place last night, with winners including Maxus (Media Agency of the Year), The Guardian (Sales Team of the Year) and PHD (Media Grand Prix). 

Just in case you missed it

Yesterday news hit that former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee had died, meanwhile a brand new regional newspaper is to be launched in Britain come January. Read our thoughts on media births and deaths here.