Porta's Ear...on MONOCLE 24

MONOCLE 24
‘Launches Next Monday’

our new audio service, broadcasting 24 hours a day!

Introducing: MONOCLE 24
— New 24-hr radio station

Broadcasting around the clock from Midori House, Monocle 24 will be a new audio service available online, via mobile app and on our own bespoke Revo wi-fi radio from October 17. With a pacy mix of current affairs, business, culture and music, Monocle 24 will be ideal for office, home or in-store listening.

Register now for more information and to be notified when we go live.

Monocle on air

— 24 hours a day

Monocle‘s new 24-hour radio station, Monocle 24, launches on Monday, October 17, and what’s interesting to note in the press release below is that the magazine will also launch a dedicated iOS app to listen to shows — I say interesting because so far Monocle has made no move towards offering any app version of the main publication.

With four live shows each week day (and daily live shows at weekends) hourly news, global weather reports and dedicated magazine programmes across business, culture, design and urban affairs – along with a curated soundtrack – Monocle 24 will reflect the core of the Monocle brand across a very immediate and accessible channel.

“We wanted to build a unique mix of smart talk, truly global news and a great soundtrack to live your day and night by,” says Monocle editor in chief, Tyler Brûlé. “Like the magazine it will be both knowing and witty, hard hitting, and off beat.”

Available to listeners on monocle.com, iTunes and a dedicated Apple application, Monocle 24 will be brought to you by the magazine’s global network of editors, correspondents and key international news gatherers – featuring a rotation of high-calibre guest hosts from across the globe. Monocle has also hired 12 new members of staff for Monocle 24, with employees arriving from the stations such as the BBC World Service and Finland’s MTV 3.

And here’s a look at a few of their shows:

The Urbanist—presented by Andrew Tuck
—a show about the cities we live in
Monocle’s editor hosts a show that looks at the people and ideas shaping our urban lives. The show will deliver a vibrant mix of reports, studio debate and news, plus regulars such as Tall Stories, which reveals the secret takes behind the buildings that make our skylines.

The Entrepreneurs—presented by Jonathan Openshaw
—for the people who run their own businesses (or wish they did)
The Entrepreneurs is a weekly hour-long show putting the spotlight on the people driving innovation in their industry. From retail to design, music to finance, it focuses on one sector and entrepreneur each week.

The Culture Show—presented by Robert Bound
—an hour of enlightenment on media and the arts
Illuminating the present, crystal-balling the future and attending the most entertaining openings, the Culture Show holds a microphone and notebook in one hand and a champagne flute in the other.

Section D—presented by Hugo MacDonald
—from craft to architecture, a show about making things better
A weekly design series presented by Monocle’s design editor focusing on global design, architecture, fashion and graphics.With industry leaders as studio guests, feature reports and updates from our network of correspondents around the world, the show is the first of its kind bringing the design industry to the airwaves.

The Menu—presented by Monocle’s editors
—a show about food, neighbourhoods and that final meal
The Menu is a weekly one-hour programme about eating and drinking in cities around the world. Each week Monocle 24’s presenters travel to a new destination to tell the stories of the people who make its food scene thrive. From manufacturers to restaurateurs, we introduce you to the people you need to know whether you are dining in São Paulo or our carousing in Osaka.

***

Monocle and the Internet have a strange relationship.

To position Monocle's relationship with the Internet as a reactive one would be wrong. Launched in 2007, Monocle was born into a media world with the Internet (and even social media) well-internalized.

Monocle is no New York Times or Time or USA Today on the defensive, awkwardly adjusting to a new media reality. It's not disrupted by the Internet BUT it's not molded by the Internet BUT it's not denying the Internet. Monocle gives none of its print content away for free. It offers a single web-only bulletin each day, refusing to call it a blog (it's a Monocolumn, bitch).

It doesn't have Facebook or Twitter or Google+ buttons.

Monocle 24 a post-Internet effort. In the animation above, Monocle shows the listener next to a home stereo, at a club, in the car listening to Monocle 24. The implicit assumption is that these devices are Internet-enabled. But the message is that Internet media is not a style of media. The Internet is invisible to the experience. Monocle publisher Tyler Brule is telling us that Monocle 24 is not your typical thinly streamed .m3u.

Monocle 24 will sound like radio probably used to sound -- it won't be tinny, it's going to be very bassy. I think we've built the two most handsome wool-lined studios in the world."

Monocle makes no Internet concessions. No tweetable headlines, no compressed audio. Even as it undeniably exploits the Internet. After all, its radio station is Internet only.

Traditional media types like to champion Monocle as a victory against the Internet. But they're missing the point. Monocle is post-Internet. Monocle is an example of how purposeful creative work is bigger than its medium.

Monocle 24 is on the Internet coz it's 2011, not coz it's an Internet opportunity.

Who knows how Monocle 24 will do, business-wise. But we can be sure that it won't resemble any terrestrial or Internet radio we've heard. It will just sound like Monocle.

“I believe it is going to be one of the best radio releases to date.
I highly recommend you tune in on that date!”

While you wait for Monocle 24 to launch, you can check out Monocle Weekly. It's a weekly podcast with archives as far back as you want.

.........................................................................................

“Keeping an ear
on the world!”



the portastylistic