It is gratifying that the case for improving social mobility through education is shared right across the political spectrum and is being espoused in the current government by a former Labour minister, Alan Milburn.

It is important, however, not to lose sight of the disadvantaged young people who need (and...

Television networks across the world can't decide whether the internet represents more of an opportunity than a threat. Most broadcasters recognise the upside potential of the web. That's why they are playing with it. But (like their cousins in hard copy media) the mood darkens when they worry about how...

Radio has always confused media futurologists. The sound-only medium survived the conquest of TV and the ipod, and has managed to bounce back from recession and technological revolution. But the recently churning ownership of commercial radio signals a less certain future: stations accounting for some 50% of radio listening in...

Daily newspapers will one day provide the most intriguing episodes in the story of how traditional media was tortured and tamed by the digital new wave. But the winners are starting to draw away from the losers in a race many will not finish. Try this hot four of traditional...

Local authority children's services directors will be in Westminster this week (Wednesday, 20 June) to discuss how vulnerable young people might be saved from eventually needing to be taken into care by going instead to boarding school. The officials will be addressed by Children & Families Minister Tim Loughton and...

UK magazine publisher Mark Wood knew what everyone was thinking: "The iPad is not the saviour of magazines". But the calm-down words came just as it looked as if Steve Jobs' last great creation was, indeed, coming to the rescue of the gasping magazine industry.
It all happened in...

What's wrong with newspapers? We could spend the next year struggling to answer the question, while traipsing through the undergrowth of the internet, of consumer tastes and news appetite, and of the competition for time, money and advertising. Newspapers are, of course, a format, not a media channel.

There...

In their clockwork orange world, UK publishers are trying to get to grips with what they hope is their digital future. It is easy to believe that good times are just around the corner. But they're not:

>Despite the sharp declines in revenue and profitability, relatively few newspapers and magazines...

This is a story of three octogenarians. It is 60 years since the death, aged 88, of (William) Randolph Hearst, now the world's second most famous newspaperman. The fearsome publisher-cum-politician, who is debited with creating "yellow journalism", was lampooned in Orson Welles' 1941 movie, Citizen Kane. Hearst certainly knew how...

If you want to see the future of TV, go 35 miles north of San Francisco to the suburban wine-making town of Petaluma. Or just go to the web. There, you will find the TWiT 'netcasting network', begun six years ago as a series of podcasts by tech journalist and...

James Packer is the most famous man in Australia. He's the 44-year-old businessman whom Aussies variously admire, despise, love for his Australian-ness, and respect for his under-sung business achievements in the shadow of a famously demanding father. And, then, there are the people who want to see him fall flat...

Traditional media companies everywhere are in turmoil. Most are caught somewhere between maximising (as best they can) profits from declining media 'channels' - and investing in businesses that just might become the next big thing. Few are actually in denial of the darkening outlook for their legacy businesses, although their...

Abu Dhabi is a country on a mission. To become the oil state that built itself a real, future-proofed economy. To be the brightest star in global investment markets. To be the Switzerland of the Middle East. And to be a world star in media, sports and culture.

In short,...

Sales and marketing people seldom let the mask slip. So, magazine industry people can keep up the smiles and pretend that the iPad or some other piece of magic is coming to their rescue. Or that they are in such control of their loyal readers that the return to former...

The plight of traditional newspaper businesses is depressing many people in the UK, US, Australia and elsewhere. Journalists see their jobs at risk from the limitless supply of "free" always-on news and low-staffed online 'aggregators'. Investors face losses and the decline of historic, once so-powerful news brands. And proprietors, bloated...

There's a captivating, almost-magical web site where you can feel the passion and share the big ideas of brilliant and insightful people including many of the world's leading thinkers and doers. The site is free and open to everyone. It's called TED and, although that stands for 'Technology, Entertainment and...

Facebook profits are roaring ahead. One insider says that the social network's profit in the first half of 2011 was some $500m (c£300m) - almost equal to that for the whole of 2010 - on revenue up to $1.6bn (£1bn).

Founder Mark Zuckerberg told buzzing delegates at last week's F8...

Seventeen years ago, almost to the day, The Independent described a British company as "one of the most admired media companies in the world". By 1994, it had grown in 50 years from humble origins as a regional newspaper publisher to a £1bn+ turnover public company with fast-growth, vibrant operations...

Today sees the glittering opening of Europe's largest shopping centre at the Olympic "city" in recycled Stratford, East London. The stats and stars will scream from screens and front pages for days and weeks. More than 300 shops, 70 restaurants, 14 cinema screens, three hotels and the UK's largest casino...

The media is accustomed to calling 'time' on industries. How many (or how few) newspapers ever spoke out in support of ailing car, steelmaking or shipbuilding industries, under siege from low-cost manufacturing countries and newer technologies? Media pundits have frequently amplified the calls for long-established industries to 'face facts', 'get...