It is not exactly rocket science to figure that we might have an interest in all things North-East this spring.
As has been muttered before in these parts, there is much to keep an eye on in and around the valleys of Tyne, Tees and Wear.
The arrival of the impressive-looking http://www.hohound.co.uk/ over the forthcoming days merely re-inforces the impression that there is much good a-foot in them there parts… much that is worthy of comment and inspection.
… at which point Johnston Press were about to build a paywall around the Northumberland Gazette and test to see just how many folk thereabouts would be prepared ‘to bow to the masters and pay rent to the lords’, to misquote Billy Bragg, The Diggers and Co…
That Tyne-Tees/Borders region continues to command my attention as many of said masters and lords line up to vie for the OfCom shilling in the shape of the forthcoming ‘independently financed news consortia’ (IFNCs) for which there is currently something of an X-Factor challenge afoot – with everyone from ex-Birmingham Post editor Marc Reeves to Will Perrin of TalkAboutLocal sitting in for Simon, Piers and Sharon.
Today, the judges delivered their verdict and whittled down the runners and riders to just three for that disputed border region…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/13/trinity-mirror-regional-news-pilot
In one corner is TrinityMirror, PA and TV production company Ten Alps; in another UTV – the ITV franchise-holder for Northern Ireland – and finally Melvyn Bragg, ITN, Johnston Press, Newsquest, Metro Radio and ITV Tyne Tees and Borders news staff.
OK, if we now drill that down to a few more, on-the-ground specifics… that, to me, says its the TM-owned Newcastle Journal and Chron plus Middlesborough Evening Gazette in one corner; versus the JP owned Sunderland Echo and NewsQuest’s Northern Echo in the other.
And, of course, the aforementioned Northumberland Gazette. Complete with its new-born pay-wall.
How UTV are planning to put foot-soldiers on the ground from a distant Ulster is another matter… what’s interesting, to me, is where this leaves the Northumberland Gazette pay-wall model.
Because I can’t quite see how they can offer that content for free on our Melvyn’s new-look platform – and yet charge for it on the Gazette site….
Something has to give, doesn’t it?
They can’t give to Melvyn for free with one hand and charge with the other… surely, that wall will have a come a-tumbling down, won’t it?
It is intriguing.
Because what is abundantly clear is that the onus is firmly on all concerned to deliver a sustainable business model that will survive – one strongly suspects – the time when the top-sliced cake runs out and, more imminently, the arrival of an in-coming Tory administration who may be that much more determined to see the nascent IFNCs pay their own way.
Hence Mr Hooper’s final command…
“Let me be clear about what we are looking for,” said Hooper.
“Quality news reporting with a mix of local, regional and national (in the case of Wales and Scotland) audiences firmly in mind; genuine innovation, not just business as usual; strong multiplatform applications working together across the web, local newspapers, local radio and television where appropriate, utilising each different medium’s special characteristics; and finally, a revenue generation model that aspires to longer term sustainability…”
That’s a very interesting use of language.
“A revenue generation model that aspires to longer term sustainability…”
If JP are banking on a paywall sustaining the long-term viability of the Northumberland Gazette, is that an ‘innovative’ solution that will be employed to under-pin the Bragg bid?
Or will the Gazette’s pay-wall be quietly dropped, in the belief that between all the various parties concerned they can discover enough platform-agnostic ad bucks to deliver the kind of long-term sustainability that Mr Hooper is demanding?
We shall all know the answer come March by when – ideally – me, @Addiply, @SunderlandUK and @JoshHalliday will have joined a few dots of our own deep in the heart of that disputed border region.
Fascinating times, me thinks.