Shiny Media is pleased to announce a partnership with IT experts, Pro IT Service S.R.L, to provide support for its network of websites. The Romanian based firm, which specialises in the Movable Type content management system (CMS), recently migrated all of the Shiny sites to new Pair servers in the US and is currently working closely with Shiny's head of in-house development, Sheldon Daniels, to add increased functionality and improved SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to the network.
Says Mihai Bocsaru, Managing Director of Pro IT: "Although we have worked with Shiny on various projects in the past, I am pleased that Shiny has decided to cement the relationship by announcing us as their preferred IT supplier. We have recently upgraded the sites to the latest Movable Type platform as well as moved the sites to a new server to cope with growing traffic."
Those we regularly read our blogs may have noticed an interruption to their usual Shiny service on Thursday/Friday last week. That's because the servers finally collapsed under the weight of too much traffic. They've been running at peak capacity for some time now and finally decided they'd had enough of the stress and strain and downed tools - I know how they feel sometimes.
Thankfully the guys at Headshift were around to sort things out for us and we were back up and running Friday night, around 7.30pm GMT. Unfortunately while we get the new kit sorted out - hopefully in the next couple of weeks - some of the sites' functionality, such as commenting, is restricted. But we are working closely with Headshift to get it all sorted. Ironically, they had just installed MT 4.2 across the sites for us, and it was working pretty darned fine, but we have known we have needed to upgrade the remaining tech infrastructure for some time now. Now we just need to make the necessary investment!
You don't need me to tell you that that we are in the midst of some very tough times and sadly they affect new media networks like Shiny too.
We have held on as long as we could without restructuring the business but we now have to make those changes to secure the long-term stability of Shiny.
It is with huge regret that we are having to part company with several members of our team . They are very talented and extremely likable individuals, however ultimately in the current climate we are faced with no choice but to let them go.
We also announce today the departure of our editorial director and co-founder Katie Lee from Shiny. Katie played a massive role in developing Shiny and in particular several of its hero blogs. She has now decided that the time is right to leave the business. She does however remain a significant shareholder in Shiny and we are very grateful for all she has done over the years.
Shiny is a British new media success story. We have built a stable of great media brands that between them attract over three million readers each month. Times maybe tough now, but we are confident that this move, though painful in the short term, will leave us well placed to thrive and prosper in the future.
Imagine my surprise when sifting through the mail yesterday I spotted some invites from the Palace (Buckingham Palace that is, not Crystal Palace). Turns out that the Shiny Media founders have all been invited to the re-launch of Her Maj's website, www.royal.gov.uk on February 12th at Buck House itself. She is going to be there too so maybe we can ask her about who she's been poking on Facebook and her favourite Lolcats pictures. Maybe she'll be live tweeting it too! Then again...
After nearly two years at Stukeley Street, Shiny Media is on the move. But don't fear we aren't moving that far, just round the corner to Shaftesbury Avenue, closer to China Town. (And don't worry you haven't seen the last of the distinctive red flock wallpaper).
Our new address from January 2nd 2009 will be:
Shiny Media
4th Floor,
130 Shaftesbury Ave
London
W1D 5EU
UK
Tel: (020) 7031 4300
Fax: (020) 7031 4302
(Direct dials to follow)
We founded Shiny Media as three freelance journalists back in 2004 and the sites were born out of a passion for the internet and a belief that established publishers just weren't making enough of the medium. The early sites were launched because we loved blogs, we wanted to write about things that interested us, and we couldn't find sites like Shoewawa and Shiny Shiny to write for.
So we created those sites ourselves, and we quickly realised that we were on to something. We'd never set up a publishing company before, and there wasn't a UK blogging business template we could follow, so a lot of what we've built up has been learned along the way.
And we've certainly learned a lot since those early days of freelance. We now have a whole team of writers (eleven in house and many more freelance), some of whom have been with us since the very beginning. Fashion journalist and blogger Gemma Cartwright joined us back in November 2004 to start Shoewawa and The Bag Lady and now heads up our entire fashion team, bringing her own successful site, Catwalk Queen, with her. More recently, we have hired two more staff members this month, including Duncan, a staff writer on our oldest and biggest blog Tech Digest and Matt who joins us as an account manager, supporting our growing commercial team.
Revenue is going up month on month and traffic has increased 26 per cent over the last 12 months. So it seems 'rumours of our death' to paraphrase Mark Twain have been greatly exaggerated.
We read the article on Tech Crunch UK and the many comments below the feature and we thought we should respond to them here.
About Shiny Media
Shiny Media is the UK’s leading commercial blog publisher. We now have 40 blogs which between them attract around 3.5 million visitors each month (August 2007 figures).
Our key blogs are
TechDigest – 440k
ShinyShiny – 312k
Shoewawa – 230k
Catwalk Queen – 246k
The BagLady – 165k
Bridalwave – 180k
CorrieBlog – 102k
The overall number of uniques doubled between Feb and August 2007.
Brands who have recently advertised on our blogs include Marks and Spencer, LG, Nokia, Sony, Philips, Dyson, Gillette, 3 phone network, Ask.co.uk, Electronic Arts, Sky, Navman
For the latest information about Shiny Media visit www.shinymedia.com
For more information about advertising on Shiny sites email info@shinymedia.com or call + 44 207 400 6724
For any other queries about Shiny Media including possible commercial relationships or enquiries from other blogs or the press email ashley@shinymedia.com
So, having been plying YouTube with my mis-named One Minute Video Reviews for a few months, my *ahem* talents have been recognised, and I'm going to be on the BBC. Their new Sunday morning show, Something for the Weekend, features a lot of cooking, and a little bit gadgetry, which is where I come in.
I was on last week, talking about the Motorola jacket and some MP3 goggles. Imagine my horror when Tim Lovejoy ignored all that amazing technology, preferring the Dr Who Cyberman helmet. No taste. So, this week, I'll be talking about the TV favourite 'Toys for Christmas', and will perhaps make a few more appearances before it ends in December.
So, there you have it. Shiny Media creating the Stars of Tomorrow. Watch out Strictly Come Dancing.
Check out the Original Cyberman helmet review here:
Our Shiny Media survey may not constitute the most fun you've ever had online, but if you spend five minutes of your life answering our questions you might just win yourself a:
Toshiba 9-inch Portable DVD player
Nokia 3220 - Orange - Star Wars Special Edition Mobile Phone
Creative MuVo TX 256MB Music Player(eight of these to give away)
Sony 1GB Bean music player (we've got four of these to give away)
Go on! - it won't take you a sec and we'll love you forever.
[Non-UK readers: Sorry - it's not open to you. It's nothing personal, we promise!]
Well I always hoped that going on tour would involve being ferried around the US in Lear jet. Ahh well. Anyhow almost as good (well nowhere near as good actually) is the Shiny Media PR tour.
In March Katie and Ashley are lining up a series of dates when we are going to visit UK PR companies and host discussions on blogging, new media in general and Shiny in particular. So far we have lined up ten companies, but if any other PR companies want to book us in to give our little presentation to their staff contact Ashley here