New.Journalism.Review

A particularly brilliant Guardian Media podcast [14th March] flowed from my Creative Zen Plus, through a pair of Sony cans, via my wingnut ears and into my brain this week. It raised a number of interesting reflections regarding the future of the world………

Monetizing content: When it comes to news sites it seems that ‘free’ is where it’s at. This got me thinking. Exactly ten years ago this month .Net magazine ran a front cover with the headline "The End of The Free!"  and asked the question "How long  will it be before we start paying for our favourite websites?". With the benefit of hindsight, we can now say at least TEN YEARS!!!  But back in 1998 most of us thought that Hotmail / Rocketmail would eventually start to charge. We didn’t think that Google would do good things like allowing free access to online word processor apps. 

Today, WSJ and FT.com are examples of only a handful of newspaper sites that have a pay-wall. FT has changed its policy. You get access to 30 articles a month for free. Above that, you’ve got to flash the cash (to the tune of 98 smackers). To me that just sounds like one of the most irritating and moronic subscription models known to mankind. Rival business newspaper the WSJ still has most of its stuff stuck firmly behind a wall. It has 1.3million subscribers – very useful in an ad downturn, but it doesn’t get you Google placements or indeed links on blogs.

As Emily Bell of The Guardian said: "If you’re not on Google people are not reading your journalism." You could also say that if people can’t link to you then they won’t be talking about you. Also people won’t buy your paper just because you don’t have a website. The people that look at your website are a different audience to those who buy the paper.

‘Reach’ first, followed by (hopefully) ‘revenue’. The web is all about reach. I still think newspapers need to come up with more innovative discounts for their loyal print readers – the type of people that get the paper delivered.

Finally DAB Radio: As with the manufacturers of Freeview boxes, DAB radios seem to be made by strange companies, like Pure and Goodmans. The likes of Sony and Panasonic aren’t that interested in supplying to little old-UK – not until there is a European DAB  standard. This also explains why Halfords won’t sell me a  DAB stereo for my car. And the boffins at Honda RnD lab in Tokyo care not one jot that I want to listen to BBC 6 Music in my Civic.This has the potential to stifle growth because your only other big audience for DAB is the housewives and the dish-washers of the world. Everyone else will access via broadband. Or you could listen via your digital TV (but that just feels REALLY strange to have the TV on, but no picture). The podcast was highly critical of Channel 4 Radio’s strategy on the DAB issue, but you have to take the Guardian view with a lump of salt as the publishers are rivals in this sector.

To make sense of the above download this fine podcast via: Media Talk podcast: a new future for Channel 4 and a round-up of the Changing Media Summit | Media | guardian.co.uk.

Link: Younger, Heavy Online News Consumers are Not Newspaper Readers, According to comScore Plan Metrix.

OK, so the fact that young people DON’T read newspapers these days sounds like research from the School of the Blinkin’ Obvious (SB0) at the Faculty of Not Rocket Science (FNRS), but read on….

The research from ComScore shows that contrary to popular belief, while young people (18-24) in the US may not read on paper, they are still often heavy consumers of news. The research finds that non-newspaper readers particularly enjoy websites of TV news stations in the US, like Fox New, CNN.com and CBS.

“TV news brands are also heavily visited by non-print newspaper readers,
underscoring the importance of sight, sound and motion to the digital news
experience.

Non-readers were 29 percent more likely than the average Internet
user to visit FoxNews.com and 15 percent more likely to visit CBS News Digital.”

We need to be careful about how we translate this to the UK. The BBC has struggled to engage with younger users at its BBC News site. Although this may have something to do with the the fact that younger groups sometimes view the BBC brand as traditional and old-fashioned. But the conclusions of the research could suggests that Five News has the right approach in reaching out to audiences on MySpace.

Those that believe in quality journalism may worry that a generation is coming through who do not feel obliged to pay their 40 or 70 pence for the news.

The ethical issues raised in Flat Earth News by Nick Davies were debated at the London College of Communication and here are a few notes [more analysis to come].

Davies doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to ‘naming and shaming’ those journalists who he believes have poor ethical standards. Davies reserves no less than 14 pages to giving Kamal Ahmed, former political editor at The Observer, a dressing down.

Davies alleges that Ahmed, supported by his bosses at The Observer, produced a series of reports about the Iraq war which were misleading. He also accuses him of cuddling up to Ali Campbell (not the former UB40 singer, the other one) to get some pro-Blair spin and “exclusives” for his paper.

If it wasn’t enough having a book in Borders that pulls your career apart, Andrew Gilligan [a man of truly impeccable journalistic standards] also felt the need to twist the knife during the debate. He said: “The attack on Kamal Ahmed was justified. He was lazy.”

Gilligan appeared in celebratory mood during the night. His ultra right-wing Evening Standard was having a successful week stiffing Ken and pimping Boris. Gilligan describes his investigations as good old-fashioned news reporting. “If it was left to ‘churnalism’ this story would never have happened,” he stated proudly.

But Gilligan risked upsetting his employer by dismissing the free sheets as “not really news.” Apparently,  places like London Lite and the London Paper employ just “five 22 year-olds…copying the news off the Internet. He also said that Wikipedia was often used as a legitimate news source by reporters generally.

A few more quotes:

• Nick Davies, Guardian hack, author,: “This is stuff worth fighting for…let’s stand up for the right to tell the truth about the media itself.”

• Peter Preston, media columnist, Observer: “I fought a long battle against anonymous sources and there are far too many in Nick’s book.” He said that the Cardiff University statistics, which Davies relies heavily on to back up his argument, were “crap”. Preston said that staffing levels at The Guardian had actually increased in recent times from around 260 to 430 (not taking into account online staff).

• Michelle Stanistreet, President of the NUJ,: “Quality Journalism is what we strive for, but ‘churnalism’ is all too common….. The average day for many [journalists] is rewriting press releases.”

• Sally Costerton, UK CEO, Hill & Knowlton [PR agency]: “I don’t believe there is a loss of transparency. We are not in the business of making up stories.”

Flat Earth News by Nick Davies is on Amazon now.

London’s Waterloo train station is fast becoming the latest battleground in a bloody tabloid circulation war. A few weeks ago vendors were selling the The Sun newspaper in the rain. This week we saw the boys and girls of the London Evening Standard inviting commuters to sign-up to a loyalty card scheme. Unfortunately, neither effort is likely to halt the decline of paid-for newspapers in the capital.

Solving declining circulation:  The Sun

The boys and girls flogging The Sun outside Waterloo looked remarkably similar to the ones who shove free copies of TheLondonPaper in your hand at 4pm. But to the confusion of many a passers-by, The Sun wasn’t being given away for free. It was available for the near-free, knockdown, take it or leave it, price of 20 pence.

Sadly, the punters weren’t biting. It seemed that commuters would rather put their 20 pence towards the cost of a pack of Polo mints, or perhaps a Yorkie, rather than the Bun.

Indeed, the perceived ‘value of news’ is crumbling as quickly as you can consume a chocolate bar. In a time of news overload, few Londoners seem to be able to spot the difference between a write-up from a newswire and a genuine exclusive. Perhaps they can spot the difference, but just don’t care. Sod the brand and sod the exclusives, the attitude is: “give me something light, entertaining and make it free.”

But Murdoch has made his own Egyptian-cotton-lined-bed and now he must sleep in it. Why not just go the whole way and give The Sun away for free in London? This idea must have been mooted at some point by some clever exec at News International by now.

Solving declining circulation:  London Evening Standard

Now for something a little more interesting. The Evening Standard has come to the startling conclusion that to raise circulation you could reward customers for loyalty. This wouldn’t be big news for the likes of Tesco or Sainsbury’s who have been at this game for years. But Associated Press, which owns the Standard, doesn’t sell bananas. It sells right-wing opinion and in this context the idea of rewarding readers’ loyalty is, quite frankly, revolutionary.

So this week a different lot of raincoat-clad boys and girls were handing out info about the Eros Card at Waterloo. Just to be clear, this isn’t a loyalty card for a local sex shop. It just allows readers to pay for their copy of ES electronically. It works in a similar way to the Oyster card on the London Tube.

On a surface level, this seems like a genuinely decent attempt to make life easier for people who hate fumbling around in the street looking for change in their wallet.

The card also allows the possibility of giving readers savings on the normal price of the Standard. Why not reward loyalty in this new world of fragmenting media audiences?

Newspapers are pretty bad at serving their best customers. I would love to be able to get a newsagent to deliver The Guardian to my flat, but where are all the newspaper boys (and girls) when you need them? It would appear that even YouTube-watching 14 year-olds realise that there’s no money in print media these days.

And like all good supermarket loyalty cards, Eros Card allows Associated to learn tons about readers’ purchasing habits. This is the type of important data that newspapers so far have been pretty bad at collecting.

The scheme won’t save the Standard’s dwindling circulation crisis, but it could have an impact if a similar scheme was launched nationally by a shop that sells a lot of newspapers, like WH Smith.

More Info:
Evening Standard Launches New Payment System (DmNews)
Standard Loyalty Card – Good idea too late (Wordblog)

ITN newsreader Alastair Stewart attacked journalism education at the IRN awards last month (Press Gazette 27 April 2007)

Stewart, who studied at Bristol University and has an OBE for services to broadcasting, advised students to follow a non-journalistic degree course and do
“real practical journalism”.

He said: “It’s heartbreaking the number of
people turning up from Bournemouth or Cardiff [University] and they are
worth nothing to us.”

Stewart advised that having a set of
cuttings and a 2:1 degree outside journalism would stand a student in
better stead than “the person with a diploma” and no practical
journalism experience.

The debate over the validity of journalism degrees has grown rather tiresome, so I’ll keep this brief.
Those that sneer at journalism / media degrees usually don’t have them. Instead they read “proper” subjects – like the classics.

Stewart studied economics, politics and sociology at Bristol University (not quite Oxbridge, but nearly there!). He also wrote for BACUS – the long established Bristol student magazine that I too used to do a bit of writing for (years later, I may add). He secured a job at ITV Southern Television in 1976 (now Meridian)

I’m sure Stewart would join in the jibes about “Mickey Mouse” degrees (vocationally orientated degrees) and sneer at the decline in  “proper” university subjects.

The fact is that journalism or media studies degrees are incredibly popular. Why? Well, students know that it’s the way to get a job in a profession that is far more competitive than it was in the 70s.

All degrees have the same purpose, regardless of content. They produce graduates with the skills to critically think, analyse, research, question, self-motivate etc etc. The good journalism degrees combine this academic rigour with practical skills.

Stewart is also wrong to suggest that journalism degrees lack the element of “real practical journalism.” The students who study at the university where I work get plenty of “real journalism”. They do work experience, NCTJ exams and come out with a set of cuttings that Stewart rightly says is so essential.

There are many people working in the media today with media degrees – including a former chief exec of Channel 4. That’s not to say that graduates should see a degree as a golden ticket into a job.

Talented young people (and the not so young) from all backgrounds and ethnic groups should see journalism as a profession for them. It’s a point that needs to be banged home time and time again.

Unfortunately, many of those that sneer at journalism degrees and make cheap points about standards in higher education come from a particular social background (yes, Mr Stewart). They’ve been fortunate  enough to attend prestigious schools and to pursue their career ambitions, yet they seem reluctant to afford this to others.

In a fascinating and detailed report, The Sutton Trust looked at the educational backgrounds of leading journalists (June 2006 PDF report). It suggests that new recruits into journalism are even more likely to come from a privileged background than previous generations. The report concludes:

For a profession that has done much to uncover the inequalities elsewhere in society, this prompts some awkward questions. Is news coverage preoccupied with the issues and interests of the social elite that journalists represent? Should the profession not better reflect the broader social make-up of the audiences it serve.

Anyway, that’s my rant over with.

For more comment see:
Journalism is a profession and universities have a role (Richard Tait in Press Gazette)