World Cup Special

June 2006

In this month's World Cup” themed Leveller Podcast, we hear Neil Mackintosh, deputy editor of Guardian Unlimited discussing how online has changed the role of the journalist reporting on the World Cup; particularly the relationship with the reader. Neil reflects on his days as a traditional journalist and how different the medium is now, with blogging and email, which allows more immediate interaction with readers and listeners; and more of a dialogue/conversation.

Our second interviewee is Blake Chandlee, commercial director of Yahoo! who talks about Yahoo!'s sponsorship of the World Cup as a great global platform for a great global event. Blake describes this year's tournament as truly an internet World Cup, he welcomes that this year, Yahoo! and its peers are sitting at the sponsorship table with traditional media. Consumers are taking advantage of the community side of the internet, and particularly with the World Cup - aren't only discussing their team's strengths and weaknesses with friends and work colleagues, they can go online and get a view from a fan from anywhere in the world.