BBC could share more technology with S4C/Trinity Mirror in Wales, says Trust chairman

In a speech given to Cardiff’s Business Club last night, BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons added more weight to suggest more regional news partnerships between the BBC and competitors are in the pipeline:

• More on partnerships: work is ongoing on partnerships in regional media with ITV; and between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide.
• Could BBC enter into an IT-sharing agreement with S4C and ITV in Wales to reduce operational costs?
• Revamp of Broadcasting House in Wales could benefit local media with technology sharing arrangements.
• “Perhaps even Trinty Mirror could have a role to play too [in partnering the BBC for regional news provision], given their journalistic presence in Wales and their significant online operation.”
• And, just in case you doubted it: “The BBC local video project is dead. We have told BBC news that it must come up with a different solution.”

Here’s his comments as a Wordle:

But, a note of caution from Lyons on partnerships:

“What we’re not interested in are proposals that simply transfer value from the BBC to other players in the market (…) Let’s make sure that we don’t inadvertently turn the BBC into the Lloyds Bank of the media world.”

Yesterday the Beeb’s Executive announced plans to link out to external news providers from its network of BBC Local sites.

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Big outcry over the Welsh Big Issue’s move to … Scotland

The NUJ have got some celebrity backing to help the protest against the Big Issue Cymru’s move up north.

The opera singer Katherine Jenkins, Radio One DJ Bethan Elfyn and award winning author Rachel Trezise have all voiced their support for an NUJ campaign to keep the The Big Issue Cymru in Wales, after it was recently announced that production would move to Glasgow and leave just one member of staff in Wales. The editor and designer are both facing redundancy.

Jenkins sung said in a release issued today: “I don’t understand how this could continue to work being edited from Scotland? My fingers are crossed, as it would be a very sad day for Wales to see the editorial being written in Glasgow, hundreds of miles away from where it’s all happening.”

And Bethan Elfyn is concerned that only one member of staff only representing Wales will be a ‘token gesture’.

“[It] will not be a good reflection of the world, the people and the activities here in Wales. I hope the sales and the good works that BI does for the homeless won’t suffer as a by-product of these cuts and changes,” Elfyn said in the release. “The staff in Cardiff worked damn hard and will be sorely missed.”

Meanwhile Trezise, author of ‘Fresh Apples’ (which was derived from an entry for the Big Issue Cymru’s short story competition) said that the magazine is “a vital source of income for the homeless in Wales”.

“It is also a very culturally significant publication; one of few independent Welsh media voices that supports native arts,” Trezise said.

The NUJ is also concerned that the move and cutbacks could mean an end to the Welsh speaking content in the magazine.

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Trinity Mirror launches Welsh-language news site

Trinity Mirror’s Daily Post Wales has launched a Welsh news website.

DailyPostCymraeg.co.uk, which went live today, will focus on North Wales, but also feature main UK news headlines, a release from the publisher said.

The site includes forums, blogs and video content aimed at a Welsh-speaking audience, and will be published alongside the Daily Post’s English-language site.

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New look for Birmingham Post website

Trinity Mirror are to revamp the Birmingham Post’s website, according to reporter on the paper Joanna Geary – who is part of the development team for the new site.

Geary opened up the floor to readers of her blog to suggest features for the redeveloped website, taking their ideas to a meeting yesterday with management staff working on the project.

In an updated blog post, Geary wrote the following on some initial thoughts on the relaunch: “We’ve got a nice head start in that we will be using a similar template to other papers in the group such as the Liverpool Post, Liverpool Echo, Daily Post (Wales) and Daily Record (Scotland). Ours, however, will have a very distinct Birmingham Post feel.”

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