Here we go again… round the same block again with the dastardly BBC and its local video plans and the provincial Press industry, aka the Newspaper Society…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/13/bbc.pressandpublishing
Just to recap where we’ve been before on this, try this one for size…
http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=97
But the more you read on this vexed subject – and the regional radio groups were joining giving the BBC a kicking the other week – the more you can’t help thinking: ‘Move on…’
It’s the BBC.
And having been there, seen them and talked to them over content share, etc, etc… if it ever happens, it’ll happen in 2011; it’ll take them a least that long to get it in and out of the Trust approval process and then it’ll be a very moot point if they still have all of that proposed £68 million to play with anyway…
… and, as we’ve muttered before, I wouldn’t expect to find Panorama-style ten-strong field crews rolling up at a town hall near you.
Like I said, this is the BBC.
After all, it’s not like they’re ripping what remains of any local advertising out of your hands a la www.itvlocal.com
There is another danger to the ever more shrill arguments being put forward by the Newspaper Society; and, in particular, the recurring old chestnut that there is no need for the BBC’s ‘invasion’ because communities are currently perfectly well served by their local newspaper providers and their own video offerings.
Mmm.
In no particular order…
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080812bridgend.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/aug/12/johnstonpress.johnstonpress
and
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/080808saveourstar.shtml
Now put all three in the context of this… the latest ‘They’re all doomed…’ piece to make the business pages of the ‘nationals’ – complete with another killer quote.
“Every media company will be affected in the downturn,” says Stephen Grabiner, global head of media for Apax, the private equity firm. “Some are structurally doomed, to be blunt. Others are cyclically challenged.”
Anyway, here’s the full version…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8070b246-68ce-11dd-a4e5-0000779fd18c.html
The point is that, to my mind, flogging that ‘Local communities are already well-served…’ line is doomed to failure.
Just ask the people of Bridgend, Barnsley, Rotherham and rural bits and bobs of Scotland. The playing field is emptying. New gaps are emerging; new opportunities.
Been here before. But I’m looking at www.mylocalwriter.com/bridgend www.mylocalwriter.com/barnsley www.mylocalwriter.com/rotherham.
And I suspect I could find three willing local reporters willing to take all their local contacts; to work from home; simply servicing a niche, local audience via an elegant digital platform.
And I also suspect I could find at least two willing takers for my locally-sourced written content, too – for those days and nights that one of my 68 local video camera ‘teams’ wasn’t covering events at Barnsley Town Hall. I’d just ask for some of their footage from elsewhere back by way of return – that and some cash for being an independent content provider.
Just as if I was an independent, TV production house churning out episodes of ‘Question Time’.
So rather than trying to bite the hand of someone who can digitally feed you, why not link to someone who can do TV best, and let them link to you – to what you do best? Locally-sourced written content.
That’s the deal; there’s the alliance. Bury the hatchet and try to unite; to work together; yes, your fractured geography doesn’t make life any easier, but trying to defend local monopolies in the age of the web doesn’t work.
Doesn’t work.
Doesn’t work.