Claims of regional bias not borne out by study

We often hear the complaint that regional news is heavily bias towards the South Eastern corner of the country.

So news of the Newsography project is welcome.

It has set out to

see what basis there is for this argument? And is it possible to determine the extent of regional under representation whilst proving London enjoys near constant attention from the UK media?

They have come up with this splendid visualisation based on stories from the Guardian



which suggests that

the results challenged the initial proposition with London appearing to be under represented given it’s population size whilst cities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Brighton feature much more prominently than larger cities.

You can download a PDF to see how where you live features on the news agenda and Manchester,perhaps not surprsingly comes fairly high up.

Ht-Martin Belam

License fee may end up funding ITV regional news

There is an interesting report in this morning's Telegraph which suggests that a proportion of the license fee could be used to fund ITV's regional news.

Ahead of the Carter report it is claimed that Lord Carter will

recommend that some of the BBC's annual revenue should be used to fund regional news services on ITV and broadband for all.

The money will come from the so called digital surplus

the £800 million built into the present six-year licence fee settlement, which began in 2007, to help older and disabled people complete the switch to digital television by supplying them with set top boxes. This is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

The surplus is reckoned to be around £250m

Ofcom to tackle local media

Ofcom is to reconsider the regulatory framework surrounding local and regional newspapers.

According to FT.com

The investigation will focus on whether the markets that newspapers serve should still be considered “self-contained” in relation to advertisers or readership and the extent to which other entities that provide news are in competition with local media companies

I can here collective sighs of relieve from the local industry but also the collective gasps from those that believe the market should be left to hasten the death of local print operations

Guardian media reports that

David Newell, director of the Newspaper Society, the body that represents regional publishers, said: "The NS welcomes today's announcement that the OFT is reviewing the local and regional merger regime within the time frame of the Digital Britain report. It is helpful that the government has specifically asked for the review to examine a number of the main issues which the NS has been asking the government to address as a matter of urgency."

Burnham-local news is a priority

I have just been reading Andy Burnham's speech to the Oxford Media convention.

Here are some of the highlights

The old media world has ended – and the sooner we say so the better.

We will only succeed if at all times we are guided by the viewing and listening public whose voices, at times, are dangerously excluded from fevered and inward-looking industry debates.

the Government will make a firm commitment to sustaining PSB provision including and beyond the BBC.

the core list of priorities is clear: high quality, impartial news at local, regional as well as national level; original high quality British content, including but not limited to children’s programming and drama; current affairs, international analysis and factual programming.

But perhaps from all the rhetoric comes this

the provision of local news – and the plight of local newspapers - has to rise up the political agenda.
It is time to develop a sensible strategy that uses the converging nature of journalism to sustain a vital local media. There is a potential here for new partnerships which might include local media businesses, private sector partners, and communities, and may be – with proper safeguards- the public sector.

So what is he saying.If everything else fails should the regional news sector be nationalised to save it?

Regional coverage of Wales under attack

Earlier in the week,I commented that the Scots were not happy about regional coverage on the BBC.

Now it is the turn of the Welsh nation.

The Wales Broadcasting Committee report heard that

the BBC's news and current affairs coverage did not reflect the transformation that has taken place in Welsh politics and national life and that Wales has been largely ignored by the BBC national news since the onset of devolution.

Furthermore

broadcasters fail to reflect Welsh lives and issues in their programming across the UK.

But the committee found that it is not just the BBC.Michael Grade has come in for particular critisism

ITV has slowly reduced the amount of non-news programming it produces. Grade admitted to the Broadcasting Committee that ITV had been failing to reflect Wales at a network level, but allocated the responsibility to the "creative community" in Wales.

Furthermore

The Institute of Welsh Affairs has produced a report which outlines some of the options for Wales, including the idea of establishing a new Welsh commercial channel which acts as a network affiliate for ITV. BECTU favour continuing strong roles as indigenous PSB production centres for BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C. It also supports an expansion of the proportion of Welsh originated programming on network BBC/ITV schedules. The NUJ has argued that Ofcom should fulfill its statutory duty in terms of ITV by ensuring that ITV continues with, and expands upon, its local and regional news and non-news commitments including Children's TV production.

Beeb accused of bias in Scotland

The BBC is under attack again this time in Scotland over its political coverage.

The Scotsman reports that

SCOTTISH Labour chiefs have openly accused BBC journalists of pro-SNP bias in a bitter attack on the corporation's political coverage north of the border.
Labour specifically complains about BBC reporters using the phrase "London Government", claiming it is calculated to inflame anti-UK opinion

The parties Scottish General Secretary, Colin Smyth,wrote to the BBC claiming

"Particularly in relation to journalists and senior editorial staff in BBC Scotland, there are legitimate concerns about the use of certain terminology in describing the political process........
"For example, references to the 'London government' are clearly designed to elicit a certain reaction and should be avoided by journalists."
Such editorial decisions place the broadcasters in the uncomfortable position of appearing to be a partial contributor to, rather than a neutral observer and interpreter of, political events.

The BBC has dismissed the claims and the SNP have described them as a "paranoid rant"

4 bids to broadcast regional news

Hats off to Channel 4 who have announced that they intend to enter the world of regional Television news as ITV begin to vacate it.

Guardian media are reporting that

The broadcaster has held preliminary talks with both Ofcom and ITV over the matter, which could see Channel 4 invest funds in regional news services and infrastructure.
Channel 4 is considering the move after becoming concerned that ITV's retreat from regional news could affect its own coverage of the nations and regions.

The move will also surely help with the Channel's desire to aquire some of the money that goes to the BBC in funding public sector broadcasting

Channel 4 fears politicians may not agree to any new PSB settlement that does not safeguard regional news provision.
The move into regional output would also bolster Channel 4's public service credentials and safeguard the quality of its national news programming, as well as boosting its case to Ofcom for extra funding

Trinity Mirrors the problems in the sector

With its half year results due in a months time,Trinity Mirror's profits warning earlier today has hit shares in the Company which publishes amongst many titles the Mirror,the People and 150 regional and local titles.

Its shares fell 25% as it warned that trading conditions would lead to a 10% fall in profits as well as announcing that it would cancel part of its share buyback programme.

The Company announced

"We have seen a marked year-on-year decline in advertising revenues across our businesses during May and June and this is expected to continue for the remainder of the year.
"In view of these difficult trading conditions and the uncertain outlook the group currently anticipates the full-year operating profit to be some 10pc lower than expectations.
"Month-on-month volatility remains and this could worsen as we trade through a very uncertain economic outlook.
"In the challenging advertising environment management continues to manage the cost base tightly and will continue to seek opportunities for further efficiencies in operations

which may well mean further job cuts and cost savings on top of those it has already announced.

For a good synopsis of the situation former Mirror journalist Roy Greenslade says

the group has been ailing for some time, desperately trying to cope with problems in both its regional and national divisions.

but argues that though Trinity

may have been a little slow out of the blocks, but it has been pursuing an aggressive digital strategy, particularly in the last year. The trouble is that it isn't making the slightest difference to the numbers that matter.

Express and Star soars

I always keep an eye on the local paper that I first started to read.The Express and Star published in Wolverhampton was delivered to my parents house everyday Monday to Saturday and after pouring over the sports pages to look how my team Wolves were doing,I would digest the rest of the paper.

It is nice to see therefore that in this climate of decline in the regional papers.the Express and Star seems to be bucking the trend.

Its website www.Expressandstar.com is showing rapid growth passing the 4 million mark in page impressions showing a rise of over 60% over six months

Source (Hold the Front page)

What the Monday media sections are saying

In the Guardian Jeff Jarvis says that Newsrooms are entering a hub-and-spoke future.Touring the BBC with its head of News Peter Horrocks,he tells us

He is making all his top managers rotate in that chair to immerse them in the demands of news in any medium. Next to the multimedia desk is a hub that manages content from BBC News resources - standard stuff - though now its contributors are organised by topic rather than medium

but

in the corner is something I think every newsroom will soon have: a media wire, which in Horrocks' words is a tasting operation that ingests and assesses content from all over to feed to any product and medium. There is a separate user-generated-content hub that does likewise with amateur content. (I'd argue these two will have to merge, as the line between professional and amateur, reporter and witness continues to blur.) This curatorial function, editing the world, is critical in a news ecology that pushes us to do what we do best and link to the rest.

The BBC gets a lot of attention in the paper with its top story asking Is the BBC hideously White City? claiming

Several in the broadcast industry agree that it has become more London-centric but suggest the issues are difficult to change in the short term. Several, including Andrew Marr, believe the corporation is trying hard to redress the balance

however

One prominent broadcaster suggests the Trust is simply running scared of powerful political pressure groups. The birth of the commission itself underlines the close connection between politics and broadcasting, at least in Scotland

The Independent looks at the Sichuan earthquake and its effects on the Chinese media.

Suddenly, Chinese reporters are asking tough questions about possible government corruption, journalists have been ignoring state-issued orders in order to get to the scene of the disaster, and footage of broken bodies and futile rescue efforts was shown live on TV. This is a startling change in a country often depicted by foreign media and governments as an authoritarian, press-belittling monolith.

Peter Wilby in the Guardian looks at the trend towards newspaper comment and comments himself that

Now the papers are full of them, and it has been estimated that, across the British media, at least 120 writers produce regular, broadly political columns. A political and media landscape without them seems to us inconceivable. Yet such columnists are by no means universal. In several European countries, political commentary comes almost exclusively from academics or other policy experts.

In the Independent meanwhile Stephen Glover takes a look at the coverage of David Davis in the media and in particular that of the Sun

it is possible that some other people are about to make a mistake that could surpass Mr Davis's. I am thinking of Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun, Rebekah Wade, its editor, and Kelvin MacKenzie, a columnist for the paper as well as a former editor, who is thinking of opposing Mr Davis in the by-election at Haltemprice and Howden.

and points out that

In democracies, governments do not own newspapers, though they try to manipulate them, and sometimes succeed. For their part, newspapers and their proprietors do not own governments, though they may also try, and Mr Murdoch has got closer than most to succeeding. It is no idle convention that the executive should keep out of the media, and the media out of the executive, but the essence of our democratic system. In one-party states, by contrast, government and press are one and the same

ITV under attack over regional production

The news that ITV has failed to meet its quota of regional production shouldn't come as any surprise to those that have followed the broadcaster's strategy over the past few years.

The Company has tried to wriggle out of its public broadcasting obligations especially on news and current affairs.The once strong regional structure,a former lynch pin of the organisation is a shadow of its former self.

It is currently in the process of making 89 redundancies here in the North West and in Leeds and is halving the number of its regional managers.

Michael Grade will argue that all of these changes are necessary in order for the broadcaster to compete in the current market.