NCTJ survey on multimedia training still open for comments

A quick heads-up that the NCTJ online survey is still open, which first launched in September. The idea is to get feedback to help re-shape journalism training and qualifications provision.

It takes about ten minutes to do, and will close on Wednesday October 8. The big question behind it all: how can training can meet the needs of employers in the multimedia world?

Editors can give their views here: www.qualasys.com/nctj_survey_2008_industry.htm
Heads of journalism running accredited courses can give their feedback here: www.qualasys.com/nctj_survey_2008_providers.htm

The report will be published in November and discussed at the Society of Editors’ 2008 conference in Bristol 9-11 November, and the NCTJ conference for heads of journalism in Salford 4/5 December.

Tags: nctj, ONLINE survey, Society of Editors

@SoE: Telegraph’s Will Lewis: Five things that will define success for media groups in 2020

In the final session of the Society of Editors conference, Will Lewis, editor-in-chief of the Telegraph and its Sunday sister, surmised the five areas he saw as being key for media groups’ success in the digital age:

• Localisation
• Personalisation
• Media groups becoming ‘enablers’ rather than handing down knowledge from on hig
• Double media- not a just video or just text - a combination of content platforms
• Being obsessed with the customer - and for the Telegraph, he added, it means consumers in all their guises and not strictly limited to those in the UK

Listen to him outline his vision of the future:

Tags: Double media, Media groups, Society of Editors, the Telegraph, United Kingdom, Will Lewis

@SoE: Guardian reporter: planning to use Hitwise figures in Telegraph marketing again?

Here’s a little moment of mirth from the closing session of the Society of Editors conference in Manchester.

During the Q&A session, Media Guardian reporter Jemima Kiss asked Telegraph editor Will Lewis about the transparency of ABCe ‘benchmarking’ monthly web traffic figures and if he was planning to again use Hitwise metric results in Telegraph advertising.

The website had previously run an ad on the homepage quoting Hitwise and proclaiming its position as the top quality UK newspaper online.

The Hitwise metric is considered by some to be an inferior measurement of a websites’ traffic than the figures supplied by Nielsen/NetRatings, comScore or the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCE).

A visibly riled Lewis told her that Telegraph marketing campaigns were ‘none of her business’ and that the Telegraph site stats were open for all to see on the site.

But what was it that riled him?

Was it the Guardian’s quest to have ABCEs recognised across the industry as the sole measure of websites metrics?

Having it rubbed in that according to this metric the Telegraph trails the Guardian by quite some way, almost in a polar opposite of the print edition?

Or was he tired of the puritanical zeal on this issue that encourages Guardian employees, it seems, to ask him a similar question every time he appears in public?

Listen here to the exchange:

Tags: Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic, Jemima Kiss, Manchester, monthly web traffic figures, Nielsen/NetRatings, Society of Editors, The Guardian, the Telegraph, United Kingdom, Will Lewis

@SOE: (Audio) Sky’s Adam Boulton and Shami Chakrabarti on the need for self-regulation of news on the internet

Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News, and Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti both told the Society of Editors conference, in Manchester today, that self-regulation on the internet was a vital part of maintaining trust in major news brands.

Boulton told delegates that he believed the standards online of Sky, the BBC or any other major news provider should be as high as through its more traditional channels, and that this would help maintain audience trust.

Listen to him and Chakrabarti here:

Boulton wasn’t so keen on reader interaction though:

“Although there is a great deal of emphasis on interactivity now I would say that in my own experience not just on my own blog, but elsewhere, the comments by and large are not worth the paper they are printed on, or not printed on.

“They are extremely vicious and unpleasant, where they are useful is that they keep us honest in that they quickly pick up on our mistakes.”

Tags: Adam, Adam Boulton, BBC, Manchester, Shami Chakrabarti, Sky News, Society of Editors

@SOE: (Audio) ‘We are wordsmiths, not video and cameramen’ Gavin O’Reilly

The WAN president doesn’t seem smitten with the idea of multi-tasking journalists given this response to a question about converged journalism posed to him by Paul Horrocks, president of the SoE, during the Q&A on the opening night of the Society of Editors conference in Manchester.

“I don’t think that’s the core competency of writers… we are wordsmiths, not video and cameramen…”

Full Extract:

Tags: Gavin O'Reilly, Manchester, Paul Horrocks, Society of Editors, The WAN, WAN

@SOE: (Audio) WAN president Gavin O’Reilly slams UK media commentators

Gavin O’Reilly, chief operating officer of Independent News and Media and president of WAN, launched a stinging attack on senior media commentators in the UK while speaking at the Society of Editors meeting in Manchester.

Listen here to some of his concerns and other points of his speech:

Failings of media commentators: too much rhetoric, overly simplistic digital vs print approach…

Failures of US print papers, threat of reader apathy biggest threat not internet, real reasons for state of UK market - freesheets and enticements, search engines and ACAP…

Tags: Gavin O'Reilly, Independent News, Manchester, media commentators, search engines, Society of Editors, United Kingdom, United States, WAN