At the time of writing, there are 33 signatures for this Early Day Motion, submitted by Gordon Prentice on May 5, 2009, which urges journalists, broadcasters, commentators and politicians to declare their own income before commenting on pay levels in the public sector:
“That this House applauds Polly Toynbee, the Guardian journalist and co-author of the book Unjust Rewards for volunteering details of her salary to the Public Administration Select Committee in its first evidence session on Executive Pay in the Public Sector; notes that she receives £106,000 per annum; and urges journalists, broadcasters, commentators, politicians and others to follow her example before pronouncing on pay levels in the public sector by first disclosing their own income, earned and unearned.”
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.”
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.”
If the Wordle and other coverage isn’t enough, here’s the Hugh Cudlipp speech by the editor of the Sun, Rebekah Wade, in full [note: may have differed very slightly in actual delivery]:
The challenging future of national and regional newspapers is now the staple diet of media commentators.
If you have been reading the press writing about the press you’d all be forgiven for questioning your choice of career.
I’m not denying we’re in a tough place – we are.
But I don’t want to use this speech to make grand statements on the future of our industry.
According to one executive at the event, magazine and newspaper publisher Lagadère is on the brink of reporting Google to the EU Commission for ‘predatory practices’.
One quote that grabbed my attention, however, was newspapers reported remark: “You are accepting the end of news as we know it.”
Google, secrecy about its algorithms and dominance of the online ad market aside, is looking forward; newspapers are trying to protect and control what they perceive as news and the news business. The problems they are facing, some related to Google and others not, should show them that this self-interested attitude can’t be maintained and their perception of ‘news as we know it’ is out-dated.
“This anti-Google attitude comes from an apparent sense of entitlement that we see clearly in France but also elsewhere: Google owes us (…) They – like other publishers and journalists – think a market should be built around what they need and that there is a fair share that belongs to them even though they did not innovate and change so those who did should rescue them. But as Scott Karp has said, no one guarantees them a business model.”
Minutes from a recent meeting of the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) Executive Team suggest ‘possible reductions in grant in aid’, which would affect freedom of information.
An London employment tribunal has dismissed a compensation claim made by Jo Burgin, the former executive at Al Jazeera English. She was seeking substantial compensation from the television network on grounds of discrimination.
