MAG casting

The Slattery Media Group employs approximately 60 people. That’s 60 minds, 60 personalities, and 60 different perspectives on how we can potentially achieve our goals, whirring at any one time. Recently, we’ve harnessed this energy with an in-house online ideas forum; staff post ideas relevant to either the way the company runs or on how to create revenue goals.

Since March 2007, when I commenced the role of editing MAG (Music Australia Guide), I’ve wanted to take MAG’s content online in a more meaningful fashion that just more pictures and more text. Not that there’s anything at all wrong with pictures and text per se, but in an ocean of web content that talks about music, we wanted to hear it, see it, and discuss it, while branding MAG and previewing upcoming content. So, I took myself off into a room one day and recorded a demo version, simply using the camera on my laptop to capture video content. One of the more freakishly talented members of our design team added some perfunctory (but perfectly effective) supers and our web team uploaded it to a specific URL only company staff could view. I posted the URL to the ideas forum the next week, and MAGcast was born.

It’s now five episodes old: in that brief period, it’s evolved from me talking incessantly at the camera about new music releases, to a fully fledged mini music TV show on the internet. MAGcast now features news, interviews, a tech segment from our TechMag editor Julia Gaw with various guests, DVD reviews and a music clip to run over the credits. We’ve promoted it only via our tweets on Twitter, in the print version of MAG, and via one-off e-letters to the music industry and to our database subscribers. And in that short time, it’s risen to reside the top 12 video podcasts on the Australian iTunes store! To quote Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody, “from little things, big things grow”.

MAGcast can be seen at musicaustraliaguide.com

You can subscribe to it free via iTunes here.

AFL Photos online upgrade

Last week, we went live with an updated version of aflphotos.com.au

The aim was to create a more user friendly environment for football fans to view our images and purchase prints for sale. The site is designed for fans, with our commercial and editorial clients continuing to use our existing site, via the link on this homepage – slatterymedia.com/images.

The entire site has been rebuilt and the search functionality changed, allowing fans to search by one of three ways.

1. The most recent collections, sorted into the last eight games, or the most popular (by month or day). This is for the many users who come to the site to check out the latest and most timely images; this is an easy way for them to check in and see the latest from the round or from their team's last match.

2. Search by player – the search button on the right hand side of the home page and running throughout the site allows you to search by player name. Enter in the name and every image with the player tagged will appear. You can view the results as a grid or as a slideshow.

3. Search by club – on the top right side of each page throughout the site you'll see our new team search. This compiles all images that are club specific and creates galleries based on club events and games. You can view a s a grid or by slideshow.

We've also made ordering prints easier and allowed cropping so that the consumer can tailor the print to be exactly as they want it.

Visit the new site now... HERE.

A book for the times

The Slattery Media Group is delighted to announce it is to publish the collected works of the renowned stockmarket analyst, writer and commentator, Marcus Padley.

Padley, who writes a daily report on market conditions via his website marcustoday.com.au, and is a columnist in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The West Australian, has a rare capacity to unravel the tricks, treats and tragedies of investing in equities.

Geoff Slattery, CEO of The Slattery Media Group, said he never missed Padley’s weekly columns. “Marcus can make you laugh in bad times, grimace in good times. He is a marvellous writer and interpreter of something that is unfathomable to most of us – investment strategies on the stock market,” he said.

“He has been writing these incisive and personal columns for many years, but the first is just as lively, timely, and informative as the last.

“I believe Marcus Padley’s Stories Of The Stockmarket will become ‘must haves’ in the bookshelves of all of us who dabble in the market.”

Marcus Padley’s Stories Of The Stockmarket will include more than 100 Padley columns, all aimed to inform the reader about big and small details of investments. It will be published on August 1, 2009, and will be sold through bookshops, slatterymedia.com.au/books, and marcustoday.com.au.

Anzac Day Honour

Since 1995, the Essendon and Collingwood football clubs have come together on Anzac Day to honour the many servicemen and women that have so bravely defended our country. Remarkably, the annual blockbuster clash has nearly always lived up to the occasion, providing footy fans with many unforgettable moments and showcasing some of the game’s brightest stars at their very best.

This year marks the 15th Anzac Day clash between Essendon and Collingwood and to commemorate the milestone, The Slattery Media Group and Essendon Football Club have produced Badge of Honour, a 100-page souvenir magazine. Proudly endorsed by the Anzac Day Appeal, Badge of Honour features a pictorial history of the players and coaches that have made the Essendon-Collingwood Anzac Day game such a special day on the AFL calendar.

It also names the best-combined Anzac Day sides from 1995-2008 for both Collingwood and Essendon, includes match reports and statistics for every game, and football writer Jim Main pays tribute to the League footballers who died defending our country.

Relive the most memorable Anzac Day moments and stars, and discover what the special day means to the players and coaches lucky enough to have been involved.

Purchase Badge of Honour here.

AFL Record online

The Slattery Media Group have recently launched AFLRecord.com.au, an online edition of the weekly publication. The purpose of the site is to provide readers with an effective way to read the AFL Record, and to establish an online archive of editions. The ability for a reader to access the magazine in its traditional layout was a key requirement of the project.

Using Javascript and Flash, the site achieves these goals with effective visual elements. Magazine pages are delivered to the browser via flash-driven viewing area, which includes tools for page turning, thumbnails, and zooming. The strength of the site lies in this simple but powerful functionality.

Coupled with a landing page that relies on a date selector and cover image rotator for navigation, the site really emphasises a minimalist approach. The end result is a user experience that is very much about accessing content they want, and not being distracted by a complex site layout.

Read the Round 1 AFL Record online, here.

Interactive designs

The Slattery Media Group recently designed and built an exciting new touch-screen interactive for the National Sports Museum at the MCG. The goal of the activity is to create a special AFL Grand Final edition of the Herald Sun newspaper's front cover. The user is the hero of the narrative, who must complete a series of fun, educational challenges in order to complete the task at hand. Working alongside the editor, a statistician, correspondent and photographer, the design each user creates is delivered to their email address where they can print out and keep as a souvenir.

Technically a very complex project, it highlights the expertise and creative resources within our design and digital teams, including film editing and post production, Flash design, and software development.

Pencil in Print

Pencil O'Reilly wants nothing more than to play for the Essendon Football Club. In his days as a country school boy, he races the bus to the stop, kicks a rolled-up newspaper, leaps over high fences, and celebrates winning games with his local club mates. But in his mind, he is streaking down the flank of the MCG, kicking the official leather Sherrin, taking hanging marks and celebrating winning games in the red and black guernsey. Jim Howes has written an engaging story about a young boy finishing school, dreaming and striving for a spot in the AFL, and facing the hurdles in his way. Aimed at young teens, this children's literature title (a co-publication with the Essendon FC) is supported by the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. Off to print last week, Pencil O'Reilly: Bush Champion will be available in April.

Handmade in Melbourne

There are many reasons for the recent surge on Australians designing and making products, gifts and personal items themselves. Environmental awareness and the economic crisis makes it a mental struggle for many to fork out hundreds of dollars on items that are mass-produced and imported. If we don’t have the time, talent or resources to make it ourselves, we are heading for quality, locally handmade products. After all, it’s what’s best for our local economy, and for our sustainable future.

Handmade in Melbourne was published by this company in 2006, and there is no better time than now to issue the follow-up. The 2009 edition will contain 200 pages of Melbourne-based artisan profiles, all of whom hand-make their products and sell locally. The group of Melbourne-based artisans will then become part of a wider community, in the online forum at handmadeinaustralia.com.au. The book will be available in August, but we are accepting artisan submissions now for inclusion. Head to Handmade in Australia to sign up. Don't miss the chance to be part of something beautiful, and inspiring.

Front page news

AFL team photo days are always hectic. In between the mayhem, we try to capture some creative individual portraits of the high profile players to add to our image library. And there aren't many with a profile higher than new Richmond recruit, Ben Cousins.

Time is always tight on such shoots, and this was no exception. Ninety seconds was all I had with the new Tiger. Fortunately, Cousins was a natural, very polite and posed perfectly to create a striking image.

Being an exclusive image and one of the first of Cousins in full kit, The Herald Sun ran the image on its February 26th cover. To see the image get such prominent exposure was personally very satisfying.

Doing more!

In a further effort to support the bushfire appeal, The Slattery Media Group volunteered the time and services of their photo department for a fundraising event put on by the Richmond Football Club. The initiative from the Richmond playing group saw fans given the opportunity to buy a spot in a team photo with their beloved Tigers.

“Initially we were going to cap it at 100 people and raise $50,000, but we were inundated with requests and given it's for such a good cause we wanted to raise as much money as possible,” Tigers’ captain Chris Newman said in a media release.

The total ended up at 180 separate photos, at $500 a photo, meant the club raised $90,000 for the appeal. A brilliant result.

Special credit must be given to the players, not only for coming up with the concept and volunteering their time, but also for being incredibly professional and patient through the 2 hour shoot, in the sun, on a 29-degree day.