Best of the Best Media of 2008

As it is the New Year I thought I would attempt a brief analysis of the choices made by the various journalists who were kind enough to respond to my "Best of the Media 2008" questionnaire.

Trad/old media: A good spread of newspapers included the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Guardian, The Times, The National, The Observer and Sunday Telegraph. But if this informal poll is anything to go by, fighting it out next year for Newspaper of the Year will be the Mail on Sunday and The Guardian. Magazines that featured on the trad list included the New Yorker, Private Eye and The Economist. The BBC also made the list with praise for Radio 4 and, in particular, the PM and Peter Day's 'In Business' programmes. Regional newspapers picked included the Craven Herald and Salford Star.

New media: New media versions of BBC programmes, like Radio 4's iPM and the In Business podcast scored along with the BBC iPlayer. Whatdotheyknow.com, which shows how to make Freedom of Information requests, was mentioned by several respondents. The questionnaire also threw up a couple of regional websites, The Stirrer in Birmingham and Earlsdon Echo in Coventry. The FTs Alphaville got a couple of nominations. The Guardian, Sun and Mail's online sites were also praised. Those old Fleet Street journalists who remember when journalism was fun at gentlemenranters also got a recommendation. As did Ushahidi.com - a Kenyan site used to report on post-election violence in the country, connecting bloggers and citizens with news and information, and videojug.com and Publish2.com . Getting an honourable mention was the tastefully titled You Suck At Photoshop.

Story of the Year: It was a straight fight between the credit crunch and Obama's victory in the US presidential elections, with Sarah Palin being chosen for her shock value. The big domestic story was the kidnap of Shannon Matthews. The credit crunch was the overall winner.
There was no journalist of the year category but several people mentioned Robert Peston's scoops and reports on the financial crisis for the BBC.

Prediction for 2009: Mostly it was more misery caused by the fall out from the credit crunch. But, remember, as long as you don't get made redundant next year, the financial crisis will produce lots of good copy.

Happy New Year and thanks to everyone who took the time to name their "Best of.."

All the Best of: Paul Linford, Adrian Monck , Grey Cardigan , Jean Morgan, Steve Busfield, Neil Fowler, Ian Reeves, Dominic Ponsford, Michael Crozier, Judith Townend and Laura Oliver, Patrick Smith, Ruth Addicott, Sue Curtis, Miles Barter, Jeremy White.