Out With A Bang

The much-trailed ‘Digital Britain’ report thumps on everyone’s desk tomorrow and from the snippets that are already emerging it looks like the Government have decided that the future of local news provision lies in the hands of TrinityMirror, Newsquest, Johnston, etc…

Cos it ain’t going to be ITV. And it can’t only be the BBC. But it might be Channel Four.

Well, that’s the future sorted then…

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=42961&c=1

Given that we had our very first VIP Club meeting last night, there was one line that stood out like a sore thumb in the above…

‘Carter told journalists today: “We don’t have all the answers to all the questions and in many instances we are not even sure we have got all the questions…’

OK, here’s the question: ‘How do we build a sustainable hyper-local news platform in 2009?’

And, after knocking that very same idea around last night with Mark and Matt from www.bestbefore.tv, with Martin Moore of the MediaStandardsTrust, with existing local and niche bloggers such as Simon from the excellent http://VentnorBlog.com and our own www.Addiply.com ’specialist’ Craig McGinty of www.thisfrenchlife.com – plus Shane Richmond of Telegraph fame, Tim Hood of www.yoosk.com and others – we came to one or two conclusions.

That, for example, Lord Carter – the answer may lie in a truly elegant network. One that is equally applicable in every postcode in the country. And not just in Trinity’s TS10.

It may lie in a starter-pack. In a DIY, hyper-local journalism, home-brew kit. That you take off a shelf.

In which Addiply provides the alcohol…

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=64

And central Government provides the initial pack of yeast.

VideoBoo can arm our postcode reporter with the ability to make great web TV at three touches of a lap-top screen; AudioBoo and an Apple iPhone can make for a great, postcode-centric radio station.

Want a billboard for 2009? Have a word with Millicent…

http://bestbefore.tv/2008/11/welcome-to-millicent-pro/

Slap one of those in your local library or your senior school foyer and watch what the kids from NR14 are doing on their Gap year as they AudioBoo ‘home’ from darkest Peru.

And you know what, as everyone in the ranks of both the Labour and Tory parties works out just how they might ‘do an Obama…’ over the next 15 months and win an election on the back of an unprecedented level of digital engagement, how are you going to ‘engage’ with a playground mums community which, we suspect, is where the heart of our hyper-local audience lies?

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=213

You VideoBoo off your Whitehall desk and drop your postcode tagged clip right in front of your constituents’ eyes…

Why will they look? Because the news that matters to most of us is what happens in and around the school gates and who won the US Presidential election. And, you know what, nothing else much matters.

Can we gaurantee that there is a full-time living for a local journalist there? No.

Perhaps the web has fractured geographical communities into so many niche and age-pieces that we can never hope to bring them back to one central starting point from where we can network out; swap content locally with the best the BBC have to offer; sell our content nationally if a bigger and better story breaks.

Perhaps, we can aspire to no more than giving a stay-at-home mum £300 a month for her efforts at being the curator of that community’s hyper-local news. Perhaps.

But what last night’s first VIP Club meeting proved beyond – I hope – reasonable doubt is the fact that we now have both the Shirkey-esque platform principles and the basic ‘notebook’ tools of a 21st Century trade to ‘arm’ said stay-at-home mum with the ability – in an afternoon – to learn how to be a local, postcode reporter.

And that was one of the great quotes from last night. Can MyLocalWriter, Addiply, AudioBoo, etc, etc pass the ‘Mum Test’. Could my Mum make a decent drink from this ’starter pack’ of tools and thinking?

Yes.

‘The Department for Culture Media and Sport has now invited responses to a consultation before 12 March.

There you go, Lord C; there’s your first response… There’s an answer to your question. That’s what the VIP Club came up with last night.

But, heh, what do we know? Those of us like Simon on VentnorBlog who have actually walked this digital walk for the last however many years…

You’re far better off asking Johnston Press for an answer.