Tag Archives: Society of Editors

SoE08: Robert Peston and Clarence Mitchell on blogging

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Following his comments at the Society of Editors (SoE) conference that suggestions that the media had caused the current banking crisis were ‘laughable’, BBC Business editor Robert Peston was questioned about his use of a blog on bbc.co.uk.

Peston said he wasn’t a ‘proper blogger’ insofar as he didn’t use his blog to speculate.

“I apply exactly the same standards of verification to a blog as I do to anything else I do,” he explained.

“I can do two things with a blog: I can get stuff out very quickly; but the most valuable thing about the blog if you work for an organisation like the BBC is that you can put out an amount of detail you can’t get in a three minute bulletin.”

The comments left by readers of the blog are ‘incredibly valuable’, as it can make you think about a story in a different way, he added.

“The great advantage of the blog is that you are constantly out there putting nuggets out that will give you stuff back and allow you to complete the story more quickly,” he said.

in the same conference session, Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, was less complimentary describing the downside of the blogosphere as ‘the lynchmob gone digital’.

Speaking with regards to the Madeleine McCann case, Mitchell said: “Where comment strays beyond the bounds of acceptability we will take action. Because story has engendered a degree of controversy and debate we have to cope with that on a daily basis.”

The case is still ‘very much ongoing’, according to Mitchell, and the McCanns see the media as partners in the search for their daughter when reporting is ‘fair and accurate’.

Settlements between the media and the McCanns and with friends they were holidaying with at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance now total more than £1 million, he said.

Mitchell also accused the British press in Portugal of being lazy at the time of the incident, choosing to sit in the local bar and turning to the Portugese media for leads.

“A quote from me and that was considered balanced journalism. Even when I said I didn’t have anything, front pages would duly appear,” he said.

SoE08: Robert Peston on the media’s role in the economic crisis

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Suggestions that the media caused the current economic crisis are ‘laughable’, BBC Business editor Robert Peston told the Society of Editors (SoE) conference today.

And claims that the BBC or Peston himself broke Northern Rock – meaning the bank itself and not the story – are ‘total baloney’, he added.

“This isn’t a reason for us [the media] to be self-satisfied or complacent. The media in general, in news but also in features, were in a sense complicit in the canard that house prices can only rise,” said Peston.

“For years and years endless property programmes and supplements created the myth that houses were a one-way bet and debts never had to be repaid.”

But, he said, it would have been ‘very hard for journalists’ to stand in the way of huge economic forces and say the world economy was headed for crisis.

Speaking of his own experiences as a business journalist, Peston said he was fortunate to have learnt ‘how debt worked’ during time spent at Investors Chronicle.

“Most business journalists don’t have that, they’re obsessed with stock markets. I think all of us have to think about the knowledge that resides in our organisations,” he added.

SoE08: What next for local media?

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Two questions being repeatedly raised at today’s Society of Editors (SoE) conference:

  • stop talking about the nationals, how can regional media get in on the digital act?
  • what to do about the BBC – or the ‘boa constrictor’ as Mail Online’s editorial director Martin Clarke called the corporation.

Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall told delegates that there is a model for the local press, focusing on hyperlocal.

“There will be models that emerge: investing in SEO, local press have to do that. There’s an opportunity for local press to go very local and build revenue around this. There are models, but it will have to be off a very different cost base,” said McCall.

She went on to describe Channel M – the television offshoot of the Manchester Evening News – as ‘a good model’ for local media that could be replicated in the future.

The business risks associated with online and sustainable digital business models, she added, need to be shared regionally and locally.

Regional media will have to take ‘a real hit’ on their bottom line when it comes to online to if they are to maintain standards of quality journalism, she added.

Malcolm Pheby, editor of the Nottingham Evening Post, took up the regional press’ baton in explaining how the NEP had successfully integrated its newsroom with staff now trained to treat all news stories as rolling news to be broken on the web.

But the pervading theme of the day has been the opposition from regional newspapers to the BBC’s proposed local video plans.

Pete Clifton, head of multimedia for the Beeb, did his best to defend criticisms of the plans, saying that the proposals are subject to assessments by the BBC Trust and suggesting that the BBC could forge stronger relationships with other news providers.

Still it was comments from McCall and Clarke, whose affiliate Northcliffe added its voice to the debate today, that received impromptu applause.

According to both, the BBC’s plans present unfair competition to the local press

Cue videojournalism evangelist and consultant Michael Rosenblum, who promised to teach the audience how to beat the BBC at its own game. Key to this he said is embracing technology, in particular video, wholeheartedly and not incrementally.

In response to a question from a Rotherham newspaper publisher, which currently has no video on its website, Rosenblum said there was a demand for the content and the potential for partnerships with regional broadcasters like ITV local.

Poll: Is Paul Dacre right to criticise Justice Eady’s use of the privacy law?

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Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has caused some controversy this morning after last night’s opening speech at the Society of Editors annual conference – leading to discussion on the Today programme – and widespread media coverage.

He says it is undemocratic that Justice Eady has repeatedly used the privacy law to prevent newspaper coverage of certain issues: he says the High Court judge has brought a privacy law in through the back door. Furthermore, he says it undermines newspaper sales…

“The British press is having a privacy law imposed on it, which apart from allowing the corrupt and the crooked to sleep easily in their beds is, I would argue, undermining the ability of mass-circulation newspapers to sell newspapers in an ever more difficult market.”

Read the full speech here, or a report from the conference here. You can follow @journalism_live on Twitter for more updates from Bristol. So… it’s over to you: click through to vote in our poll:
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#soe08 Live Twittering from the Society of Editors conference in Bristol

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Here’s the last 30 updates using the Twitter hashtag #soe08 – you will need to refresh the page to watch it update. Alternatively, you can simply follow the RSS feed or, if you prefer just our own fair Tweets from the very able Laura Oliver, subscribe to Twitter.com/journalism_live

[carpwp:feed{http://www.hashtags.org/tag/soe08.rss}][/carpwp]

NCTJ survey on multimedia training still open for comments

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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.

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

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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:

[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/lewis.mp3]

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

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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:

[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/kisslewis.mp3]

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

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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:

[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/boultonandshami.mp3]

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.”

[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/Adamboultonone.mp3]