How news changes – the UK experience

Professor George Brock Head of Journalism

City University London3D, Utrecht 30th October 2009

The British model

• Local and “national” papers• High readership per head: 12th highest in

world• Sizeable advertising market for print and TV:

£6.8bn and £4.4bn in 2008• Cross-media ownership limited• Elephant in the room: the BBC

How did we get here?

• The crisis is about local papers and TV• Threatened because of (classified) advertising

demand fall – Enders: 48% fall of print ad income 2007-13

• Demand for print journalism not the issue• …except among the young

Long-range shifts

• Rising affluence• Security and peace• TV culture + passivity• Explosion of channels and info

Effects

• Perceived value of journalism is lower• Journalism is less formal– More accessible and flexible– Less disciplined

• Local accountability isn’t working– Online business models untested– Habits change slowly

To summarise…

• Print will shrink • Sustainable online business models are the key– Paywall wars to come

• New grammar for storytelling• Something valuable is being lost. It needs

replacing.• But because of the news media’s reputation,

few people care.

UK: throwing spaghetti at the wall

• The forgotten element: news agency• National player goes local• hyperlocal• investigative

Press Association local pilot

• Launching “public service reporting” pilot

• Aimed at replacing dwindling local news coverage of meetings such as councils + courts

• First trial in Merseyside with Trinity Mirror this Autumn

The Guardian goes local

• Hyper-local blogs to be launched in Cardiff, Edinburgh & Leeds in early 2010

• “There is a risk that the decline of local news could allow corruption in public institutions to grow” The Guardian

• Sarah Hartley, the Guardian Local launch editor : “This experimental project reflects both the shifting nature of journalism and the reality on the ground."

Grassroots hyperlocal blogs (1)

Hyperlocal blogs (2)

Hyperlocal blogs (3)

Associated Northcliffe Digital

Help me investigate – Paul Bradshaw

Help me investigate – Paul Bradshaw

• Open-source investigative journalism platform

• "People can contribute their expertise to answer specific questions, and journalists with no resources could use the site to call on the community for help."

Local broadcasting

• Local broadcast journalism is lags behind print• Initial capital and technical

expertise is still beyond the average citizen journalist.

AudioBoo (sonic Twitter)

Users to record audio clips up to three minutes long then share them online.

Manchester Evening News +Coveritlive

Coverage of a far right demo in Central Manchester using Twitter aggregation service Coveritlive.

MEN, mp3 and YouTube

Rudimentary video page of embedded YouTube clips.

Express and Star and Livestream

The West Midlands paper uses Livestream to embed streaming.

Data mining and APIs

Issues to face

• State support? • Shirky’s First Law: the future will be weird• The importance of trust• Does the bundle survive?• Balancing fact and analysis• Words vs sound & pictures• Training in versatility needed• Business training even more important• Citizen journalism: curating becomes a job.

State support?

• Columbia Journalism Report “The Reconstruction of American Journalism” by Len Downie & Michael Schudson• Tax reform to allow local news organisations to

receive deductible donations• Public broadcasting to go local• Universities and colleges to become bases for

local accountability reporting• Fund for Local News fed by tax on ISPs or telco

users

Questions to answer

• How will citizens get the information they need for democracy to function?

• What value does established, mainstream media add?

• Do trained journalists play a role?• How will those who gather democratically

useful information be compensated for their work?

George BrockProfessor and Head of Journalism

City University Londongeorge.brock.1@city.ac.uk

@georgeprofwww.georgebrock.net

www.editorsweblog.orgwww.guardian.co.uk/media/greensladewww.newsinnovation.com