The results of a £250,000 investment can be seen below – as can a pic of me gazing somewhat adoringly at Sir Michael Parkinson, who expressed his concerns for the future of local media at the event.
The opening was followed up by a visit to the Nottingham Evening Post and a good chat with deputy editor Martin Done about how it integrated its newsroom – more thoughts to come on this.
Two questions being repeatedly raised at today’s Society of Editors (SoE) conference:
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.
Northcliffe has revamped 48 of its thisis sites to bring them in line with the publisher’s new online design for the network.
Websites for the Nottingham Evening Post, Lincolnshire Echo and South Wales Evening Post have been overhauled as part of this phase.
News of an earthquake that struck the UK in the early hours of Wednesday morning caused a surge in traffic to Sky.com/news with more page impressions recorded on the site at 1am than 9am, the site’s executive producer Julian March writes on the Editors’ Blog.
A similar effect was experienced by the Nottingham Evening Post’s site, HoldtheFrontPage reports, after it posted news of the quake within 30 minutes.
The site saw 1,821 readers visit between 1am and 2am – increasing this to 6,000 by 9am, 20,000 page views and 60 comments on the story – though it’s a shame they appear to have only opened this feature from 6am.
Both great examples of why it’s crucial to break news online – whether a local or national title – and get ‘ownership’ of the story to keep drawing those viewers back.
The BBC’s online and radio coverage was hot on the heels of the incident, though the video below – courtesy of student journalism blogger Dave Lee – suggests their TV news had to play catch up.
(I like the idea of competitive news watching between channels)
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foD0YXHIknQ]