Ben Bradshaw's speech to the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge last night did not specifically mention the regional press, but there is no doubt that its content will have repercussions for the industry, in particular his comment that the BBC has "probably reached the limits of reasonable expansion."
The culture secretary pointed out that in the last 20 years, Bradshaw said, the BBC has grown from being a provider of two TV channels, four national radio stations and a local radio network to a media giant with a world-leading online presence and a commercial publishing arm, adding: "If it were to continue on anything like that trajectory, the rest of the industry would be right to be worried and the mixed economy would be seriously imbalanced."
This confirms the fairly widespread view that last year's battle over the corporation's plans to set up 68 local internet TV stations, and the ultimate defeat of those plans by a powerful regional press lobbying operation, probably represented the apex of the trajectory he describes.
Media Guardian has the full pdf of Mr Bradshaw's speech here.
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Monday, 10 August 2009
Credit where credit's due
Will Green, my successor-but-one as political editor of The Journal, scored a notable exclusive by persuading Minister for the North-East and Labour Chief Whip Nick Brown to go on the record with his thoughts about Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.
The story, in which Brown effectively told Ashley to get out of Toon, was followed up over the weekend by several national newspapers.
But as Will reveals on his blog, while the Mirror's version of the story duly credited The Journal with the original scoop, the Daily Telegraph's version failed to include such a hat-tip.
Strange, that, given that the entire regional press has spent the summer busily hat-tipping the Telegraph over its MPs' expenses revelations.
The story, in which Brown effectively told Ashley to get out of Toon, was followed up over the weekend by several national newspapers.
But as Will reveals on his blog, while the Mirror's version of the story duly credited The Journal with the original scoop, the Daily Telegraph's version failed to include such a hat-tip.
Strange, that, given that the entire regional press has spent the summer busily hat-tipping the Telegraph over its MPs' expenses revelations.
Friday, 7 August 2009
Is Digital Britain turning into a dog's breakfast?
After some confusion as to whether Sion Simon or Stephen Timms would be taking over the Digital Britain brief from the now-departed Lord Carter, Downing Street has now ruled in favour of Mr Timms.
But anyone expecting any degree of clarity from the government over which Whitehall department will be ultimately responsible for implementing the plans will have been sorely disappointed.
The story so far is that Timms will remain in his current role as financial secretary to the Treasury, but with additional ministerial responsibilties at Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In terms of his Digital Britain responsibilities, he will report to the Business Secretary, rather than the Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Ben Bradshaw, whose department has hitherto led on the Digital Britain report and who personally delivered it in an oral statement to the Commmons back in June.
Meanwhile Mr Simon, as creative industries minister, is to undertake some ill-defined supporting-role in relation to those aspects of Digital Britain which are still the responsibility of the DCMS.
The upshot of all this appears to be that Mr Bradshaw, a former Exeter Express and Echo reporter who has recently made some welcome comments about the threat to regional newspapers posed by council propaganda sheets, has been well and truly sidelined.
A cynical interpretation of this would suggest that Bradshaw, who is also a former BBC reporter, was deemed insufficiently impartial to rule on the vexed issue of whether the BBC licence fee should be top-sliced to fund new regional TV news consortia in which the local press is expected to play a part.
Either way, with so many departments and ministers now apparently involved, the words "too many cooks," "dog's breakfast" and "camel designed by committee" all spring to mind.
But anyone expecting any degree of clarity from the government over which Whitehall department will be ultimately responsible for implementing the plans will have been sorely disappointed.
The story so far is that Timms will remain in his current role as financial secretary to the Treasury, but with additional ministerial responsibilties at Lord Mandelson's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In terms of his Digital Britain responsibilities, he will report to the Business Secretary, rather than the Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Ben Bradshaw, whose department has hitherto led on the Digital Britain report and who personally delivered it in an oral statement to the Commmons back in June.
Meanwhile Mr Simon, as creative industries minister, is to undertake some ill-defined supporting-role in relation to those aspects of Digital Britain which are still the responsibility of the DCMS.
The upshot of all this appears to be that Mr Bradshaw, a former Exeter Express and Echo reporter who has recently made some welcome comments about the threat to regional newspapers posed by council propaganda sheets, has been well and truly sidelined.
A cynical interpretation of this would suggest that Bradshaw, who is also a former BBC reporter, was deemed insufficiently impartial to rule on the vexed issue of whether the BBC licence fee should be top-sliced to fund new regional TV news consortia in which the local press is expected to play a part.
Either way, with so many departments and ministers now apparently involved, the words "too many cooks," "dog's breakfast" and "camel designed by committee" all spring to mind.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Would Franzen have done better?
Former That's Life presenter Esther Rantzen today struck a blow for the journalistic profession by announcing she will stand for Parliament at the next election in the Luton seat being vacated by expenses row Labour MP Margaret Moran.
But if it's Rantzen for Luton South, it could have been Franzen for Norwich North, if Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had had his way.
Peter Franzen was, until a few weeks ago, the hugely respected and long-serving editor of the Eastern Daily Press. But after announcing his retirement at the end of May, he was apparently then approached by Clegg to be the Liberal Democrats' candidate in the Norwich North by-election caused by the resignation of another MP hit by expenses revelations, Ian Gibson.
The story, which originally surfaced on Iain Dale's Diary and was subsequently carried on HoldtheFrontPage, has never been denied, and Peter's own carefully-worded non-denial - "it would be unfair to the now-adopted prospective parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems, April Pond, to say any more" - seemed to amount to a confirmation.
In the event, of course, Ms Pond's selection proved disastrous for the Lib Dems. She came a poor third, prompting at least one political blogger to question Clegg's own future.
Would Peter have done better? Quite possibly. For all the low esteem in which they are allegedly held, journalists have a good record as "anti sleaze" candidates, as Martin Bell proved in 1997, and as the redoubtable Ms Rantzen may well prove in 2010.
But if it's Rantzen for Luton South, it could have been Franzen for Norwich North, if Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had had his way.
Peter Franzen was, until a few weeks ago, the hugely respected and long-serving editor of the Eastern Daily Press. But after announcing his retirement at the end of May, he was apparently then approached by Clegg to be the Liberal Democrats' candidate in the Norwich North by-election caused by the resignation of another MP hit by expenses revelations, Ian Gibson.
The story, which originally surfaced on Iain Dale's Diary and was subsequently carried on HoldtheFrontPage, has never been denied, and Peter's own carefully-worded non-denial - "it would be unfair to the now-adopted prospective parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems, April Pond, to say any more" - seemed to amount to a confirmation.
In the event, of course, Ms Pond's selection proved disastrous for the Lib Dems. She came a poor third, prompting at least one political blogger to question Clegg's own future.
Would Peter have done better? Quite possibly. For all the low esteem in which they are allegedly held, journalists have a good record as "anti sleaze" candidates, as Martin Bell proved in 1997, and as the redoubtable Ms Rantzen may well prove in 2010.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Are the Tories trying to spin their way into the regional press's good books?
Earlier this week the Tories made a bit of a splash in some quarters by announcing plans to allow newspaper groups to provide regional TV news using funding top-sliced from the BBC licence fee.
It was of course good to see David Cameron and co taking such an interest in the future of the industry, but I couldn't help thinking it was slightly opportunistic on their part, given that the creation of new regional news consortia was a key aspect of the Digital Britain report published by the government last month.
Shadow Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt berated Digital Britain for what he called its "lack of radicalism," but although it failed to spell out a role for local newspaper companies in TV news provision in words of one syllable, this was implicit in the proposal and was widely reported as such in the trade media.
As HTFP reported at the time, "newspaper groups, TV broadcasters and other news media organisations are expected to benefit" from the top-slicing proposal. Indeed the Press Assocation has already launched a local news pilot that seems to be putting down an early marker for a share of the funding.
Fair play to the Tories for getting a few headlines - that is their job after all - but essentially what they have done here is taken someone else's idea and given it a fresh angle.
And I thought it was just journalists who were supposed to do that sort of thing.....
It was of course good to see David Cameron and co taking such an interest in the future of the industry, but I couldn't help thinking it was slightly opportunistic on their part, given that the creation of new regional news consortia was a key aspect of the Digital Britain report published by the government last month.
Shadow Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt berated Digital Britain for what he called its "lack of radicalism," but although it failed to spell out a role for local newspaper companies in TV news provision in words of one syllable, this was implicit in the proposal and was widely reported as such in the trade media.
As HTFP reported at the time, "newspaper groups, TV broadcasters and other news media organisations are expected to benefit" from the top-slicing proposal. Indeed the Press Assocation has already launched a local news pilot that seems to be putting down an early marker for a share of the funding.
Fair play to the Tories for getting a few headlines - that is their job after all - but essentially what they have done here is taken someone else's idea and given it a fresh angle.
And I thought it was just journalists who were supposed to do that sort of thing.....
Friday, 10 July 2009
Coulsongate
Or should that be The Wages of Spin? Thanks to cartoonist Slob for this take on the potential political ramifications of the alleged News of the World phone hacking affair - it was originally posted on my political blog but I thought it merited another outing here.
Meanwhile regional editors have been having their say on the Guardian claims, with the Northern Echo's Peter Barron calling for a new police investigation.
Meanwhile regional editors have been having their say on the Guardian claims, with the Northern Echo's Peter Barron calling for a new police investigation.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Ex Cabinet ministers tell all to MEN
One of the most enduring frustrations during my time as a regional lobby journalist was the way in which the New Labour spin machine systematically cut the regional press out of the loop when it came to the dissemination of government information, doutbless aware that we tended to be rather less biddable than our national counterparts.
So nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see a regional political reporter scooping the nationals to the big political stories.
David Ottewell of the Manchester Evening News is one of the best young political hacks in the business and he has now beaten the nats two days on the trot, securing the first exclusive interviews with both James Purnell and Hazel Blears since their Cabinet resignations.
The MEN filmed the Blears interview for its sister TV station, Channel M, and then syndicated it to the BBC and Sky News where the story has been running for most of the day. All power to your elbow, David.
So nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see a regional political reporter scooping the nationals to the big political stories.
David Ottewell of the Manchester Evening News is one of the best young political hacks in the business and he has now beaten the nats two days on the trot, securing the first exclusive interviews with both James Purnell and Hazel Blears since their Cabinet resignations.
The MEN filmed the Blears interview for its sister TV station, Channel M, and then syndicated it to the BBC and Sky News where the story has been running for most of the day. All power to your elbow, David.
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