Tag Archives: bbc online

OJB: Three things the BBC has done for online journalism

Three weeks on from the announcement that the BBC would cut 360 jobs as part of a 25 per cent cut to its online budget, Paul Bradshaw looks at three things the corporation has done for online journalism.

1. Web writing style

The BBC’s way of writing for the web has always been a template for good web writing, not least because of the BBC’s experience with having to meet similar challenges with Ceefax – the two shared a content management system and journalists writing for the website would see the first few pars of their content cross-published on Ceefax too.

Even now it is difficult to find an online publisher who writes better for the web.

Full post on Online Journalism Blog at this link.

Metro: Fan saves BBC websites from deletion for £2.50

More than 170 BBC sites due to be deleted have been anonymously archived and made available to download via bitTorrent.

The anonymous campaigner reported that the process cost him just $3.99 (£2.50).

While the torrent was created anonymously, some sources have suggested that the person behind it is Ben Metcalfe, also known as dotBen, who posted a link to the archive on Twitter with the message: “So here it is… if you want to download the torrent backup of all the sites the BBC are closing.”

Full story on Metro.co.uk at this link.

BBC Internet Blog: Domains earmarked for closure by the end of the year

The BBC Trust published a report yesterday which revealed that up to 360 posts within BBC Online are to be cut by 2013, as part of a 25 per cent budget reduction within the division.

The Trust’s report included reference to detailed plans to halve the number of ‘top level domains’ (TLDs), e.g. bbc.co.uk/xxx.

Following the announcement managing editor of BBC Online, Ian Hunter, has published a post on the BBC Internet blog outlining progress in the restructure so far, such as decisions on how best to manage legacy content from sites which have become out of date.

You can read more here, where Hunter also provides a useful link to a list of TLDs which are earmarked for closure before the end of the year.

BBC launches new appeals process for moderated comments

The BBC online team has launched a new appeals process for moderated comments, in a move which aims to ensure greater equality and fairness when sharing opinions online.

The broadcaster announced that a new system became necessary after the growth of online communities within the BBC site.

The old system relied on you responding to a moderation email and was devised when we had half a dozen community sites using the DNA moderation system. However, with nearly 300 different blogs, boards, community sites and comments systems now using DNA, it became impossible to even maintain the folders, let alone ensure that all the teams responsible were responding to your moderation queries.

The new system will mean all appeals and complaints will be handled by a dedicated team, who will turn to hosts, bloggers or production teams for direction where necessary.

The moderation failure emails are shorter and contain a link to more information about the rule your contribution was deemed to have broken. If you wish to appeal you can contact us via the feedback forms on http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs and http://www.bbc.co.uk/messageboards. You will get an initial response within 10 working days, and if you are unhappy with the outcome, an opportunity to continue with the appeal procedure. If you have restrictions placed on your account, you can also appeal with the new process.

See the full announcement here…

paidContent:UK: A pay-for BBC could backfire on its rivals

paidContent:UK’s Robert Andrews argues that charging for BBC content – as some critics have suggested – would damage rather than rescue its rivals.

“For starters, it [the suggestion] ignores the fact that the BBC already charges for its websites as part of the £142.50 annual TV licence, while it’s commercial competitors who offer their material for free with ad support. That makes their protestations ironic.”

Full post at this link…

Twitter tops BBC for monthly traffic, while BBC Online click-throughs exceed 10m

More than 50 million people used Twitter last month – an increase of more than 7 million from June, according to new data.

The website, which attracted 51.6 million unique users in July, now outranks the BBC and Craigslist in terms of monthly visitors. It has also become one of the top 50 most popular websites in the world, according to the research by comscore.com.

Meanwhile BBC Online’s controller Seetha Kumar reported in a BBC blog post that the number of click-throughs experienced by the site stands at 10-12 million each month.  The blog, posted as a response to the BBC’s first online ‘open meeting’ on August 14, revealed that users were dissatisfied with BBC Online’s use of external links.

Kumar said: “We want to establish new and richer connections to the wider web where they are editorially relevant and meet our public purposes. We know that our users want us to do this and it’s a process that we take very seriously”