Shiny Media

More coverage of Tech Digest this time in Mobile Enterprise a UK-based telecommunications business mag. Cheers for the plug guys. We thought we only wrote about comedy gadgets though.

Shoewawa got its first thumbs up on Wednesday when it made Site of the Day in The Guardian’s blog section. Hate to think what Editor Gemma's phone bill was like for that day...

We spotted a really lovely story today on Neil McIntosh’s excellent blog Complete Tosh, where The Guardian scribe basically implies that between the two of us we pioneered commercial blogging in the UK.

We’d love to say he’s right, but modesty forbids and all that. Nevertheless today Tech Digest notched up its 1000^th post – not bad for a blog that most people, us included, thought would run for abut two weeks. We celebrated with a pot of Earl Grey, some Green and Blacks chocolate and a lie down.

Of those 1000 posts only two have got us into trouble - one with a leading west London based publishing based company and the other with a US ‘very quick email on your phone’ company - so we are obviously not trying hard enough.

Cheers for all your support and here's to the next 1000.

Media tarts? Us? Ok so we'll come clean. You might have seen or heard a member of the Shiny team on Monday as we were all over the media wittering on about a rather silly story about the supposed death of the VCR.

Editorial Director, Katie Lee donned her favourite shirt to wow the afternoon team on ITV News, while Creative Director, Ashley 'great face for radio' Norris, was on BBC Five Live arguing that you can still believe that vinyl sounds better than CD and not be a Luddite.

You can also check out a story about the Dixons fracas in the Guardian.

Top news from Shiny Towers. Our latest Shiny Media site is now live so we thought it was about time we let you know about it. See the press release below for more info, or just get over there right now and have a look for yourself: Shoewawa (and sign up for the mailout)

Britain’s most exciting web-publisher, Shiny Media, has unveiled its latest addition to the Shiny fold. Shoewawa is a snappy, sassy, and slightly sarcy website about every girls’ favourite obsession: shoes. Written by fashion journalist and long-time web-editor, Gemma Cartwright, Shoewawa gets you through the day with its shoe-fixated stories. Feed your desire for footwear with:

• High street copycats of designer numbers.
• eBay watch – we keep you up-to-date on fantastic bargains on eBay.
• Latest launches – new high street and designer ranges.
• Celeb shoe-gazing. Find out what the celebs are wearing and where you can get yourself a pair.
• Focus on new talent, latest fashions, accessories – in fact, anything remotely shoe related!

Our Friday round up of the best auctions on eBay means you can spend your afternoon bidding for the best new and 2nd-hand shoes from Manolo, Jimmy Choo, Prada et al, all from the comfort of your computer. We’ve also tracked down all the best online shoe shops so you can find your new sole mates without wearing out your old ones on the streets.

Sign up for Gemma’s regular Shoewawa mailout and you’ll get all the latest shoe news and reviews sent straight to your inbox. With daily updates to the site, you can get a regular fix of footwear without spending a penny.

Well this month anyway!

The UK edition of the fash mag has a feature all about gadgets for girls and Shiny Media's Editorial Director, Katie Lee once again gave her twopennyworth.

'I might as well pack up and go home now,' said the brains behind Shiny Shiny. 'I have achieved everything I wanted to in life.'

Check it out for Vogue's suggestions of the best products out there for the ladies, including the iPod mini, the BlackBerry, and Apple's Powerbook laptop.

Move over Jon Ronson and tell Alexander Chancellor the news - this week's Guardian Weekend magazine been over-run by the Shiny Media team.

Shiny Shiny Editor Katie Lee cherry-picks the coolest and most colourful gadgets, Games Digest mainman Simon Munk puts a videogame virgin through her paces, occasional TD and Shiny contributor Caramel Quin attempts to prove that not all gadgets are an environmental disaster waiting to happen and TD's digital janitor Ashley Norris checks out retro gadgets, most of which he probably remembers from the first time they launched.

The gadget supplement also features a couple of up and coming tech writers in Zoe Williams and Mil Millington, who we might just let grace these pages one day provided they can match our peerless editorial standards. The supplement looks even better in print as The Guardian spent the equivalent a Premiership player's weekly Cocaine allowance on photography too. We are off to buy about 100 copies now.

Shiny Media is a London-based pico-publisher. That’s a bit like a nano-publisher or a micro-publisher, we just think pico-publisher sounds cooler. We have been in business since August 2003.

What we do - Produce high quality blogs written by supremely talented writers that cover niche areas that people in real publishing choose to ignore.

What are blogs? – Choose your own definition, but we reckon they are news-oriented sites laced with a heavy dose of editorial opinion that are updated frequently. They differ from real websites in that they are quicker to publish stories, able to link to loads of other exciting stuff on the web and generally are a whole lot more fun.

Tech Digest - We started our blog-odyssey back in 2003 when we launched Tech Digest, the first gadget site aimed at Europeans and Brits rather than Americans. Since then Tech Digest has developed into a bit of a monster with page impressions topping half a million a month. We can also boast a devoted readership that reads like a who's who of consumer electronics journalism, PR and marketing.

Shiny Shiny - In March 2004 we launched Shiny Shiny, the first ever gadget blog written by and for women. Within a week, USA Today was raving about the site while International Herald Tribune was on the phone curious to discover who was delivering this unique perspective on technology. Since then the British press have also taken note and Shiny Shiny has been featured in The Guardian, Vogue, Time Out and many other places. It has since been widely imitated but never bettered.

Games Digest - After reinventing women's technology journalism, the Shiny group signed up the UK's leading games writer, Simon Munk, to offer a completely geek-free take on gaming. Games Digest is not only seen as an authority by many in the UK consumer electronics industry, it is also the only games blog that many in the industry understand.

Digital Jukebox - A recent addition to the Shiny stable, Digital Jukebox has the latest on everything from the latest MP3 players to the hottest music download services.

Mobile Digest - Another successful site that rounds up all the latest mobile phones

We also have plans to launch six new blogs before March 2005

If you are a company with key messages you want to communicate to your staff, customers or indeed anyone online, corporate blogging is an easy and cheap way of heightening your profile. Shiny Media has just signed up its first two corporate blog accounts and is available to work with other clients

Chris Price has been a freelance journalist for the best part of a decade now. His work regularly appears in nationals like the Daily Mirror and The Guardian as well as specialist titles such as Digital Home. As Shiny Media’s Commercial Director, he ensures that the blogs are not only top notch, but that the cash keeps rolling in too.

Katie Lee has been exorcising her years spent at What Laptop magazine by penning wasp-ish put downs and wickedly delicious puns for the likes of The Independent, Stuff, Marie Claire and, err What Laptop. She combines her role as Shiny Media’s Editorial Director with that of Editor of both Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny.

Another freelance veteran, Ashley Norris is Shiny Media’s Creative Director. When he is not wandering around in a Noel Coward-esque smoking jacket supping endless Cappuccinos, he attempts to come up with ideas for new blogs.

Simon Munk – Another freelance journalist of many years standing, Games Digest Editor Simon writes about consumer electronics, and naturally enough, gaming for a host of national newspapers and specialist magazines.

Gemma Cartwright – The latest addition to the Shiny Media team Gemma, who edits Shoewawa, has actually been blogging for over five years and is the brains behind the award-winning Catwalk Queen website.