Media replies to the bloggers
- Added:
- Jun 27, 2005
The Cass Creatives 22 June event 'Read All About It! -- News in the
Internet Age', programmed by Interactive KnowHow, brought together Sue
Brooks, Managing Editor of Content Development at APTN (TV arm of the
AP news agency), Yahoo UK & Ireland editor (and ex-Sunday Express
journalist) Simon Hinde, Adrian Monck, City University's Head of
Journalism, and ex-CNN heavyweight Jon Petrovich, now Chief Media
Strategist at broadcast news distributor The Newsmarket.
The events was at City University's well-appointed Cass Business School, sister to its equally well-established department of journalism.
Setting the stage and chairing was Frank Kane, Business Editor of The Observer, who lead in to a presentation of the now notorious EPIC video, which charts the past and future of the news industry to domination of the combined Google and Amazon in 2014.
Reflecting on the presentation, Adrian Monck noted that the death of music industry, supposedly brought on by Apple's Garage Band software and Napster, had been widely foretold but hadn't come to pass.
Sue Brooks speculated that if the Googlezon vision came to pass Google may come to be as resented as Microsoft is today.
There is "an uprising from people who no longer trust our profession", observed Jon Petrovich, with his pinstripe suit identifying him as an archetypal news proprietor. "We are allowing this to happen because of the stupid things we are doing".
"Internet journalism hasn't really found its form", said Simon Hinde, "but it will during my working career".
He also noted that "people are turning to the Web as they are aware that newspaper news is not always reliable".
Petrovich commented on the US trend for people to gravitate to sources of news that reflect their opinions, and the general trend for decreasing staffing being made up for by putting on more news and information. "We are not paying close enough attention to the profession", he said.
The subject of Weblogging was never far from the surface.
In response to a question from Frank Kane about whether news gathering could be democratised, Simon Hinde contended that you "can't have news gatherers who aren't present at the event", and that such activity should be considered as comment.
Replying to a point from the audience that we shouldn't imagine people are only producers or consumers, Monck asked "who will pay for serious investigative journalism?", presenting a possible example of a reporter pursuing state-sponsored torture in a central Asian republic.
Commenting on a discussion about trusted sources and computer-edited news, Brooks argued that people are clever enough to differentiate trusted sources from Weblogs.
To an audience suggestion that it might help people unfamiliar with a country's media if journalists were accredited, she argued that "accreditation is antithetical to democracy and freedom".
Another audience member reprised two mantras of Lord Reith, first governor of the BBC, the first on the requirement for the media to educate, inform and entertain, and the second on surprising and delighting your audience.
"Broadcasting requires broad", she observed. "One size fits all won't work in the future", Petrovich countered.
Considering business models Hinde noted that people are not paying for news, but that companies such as his own do pay to source news from existing brands.
Petrovich asserted the continuing importance of new brands, though he noted that newspapers were suffered from 'cycle-sclerosis', as they don't like change.
He contended that people with limited free time would value personalisation, and argued for profile-based advertising in which users were 'incented' to purchase. "High-level customisation is worth paying for", responded Monck, "but not personalised views of the Michael Jackson trial!".
Monck concluded the debate on a pragmatic note, observing that in the 50s commentators were similarly shocked that people trusted TV over newspapers.
"It is just the medium", he said. "The issue is how the market will shake down."
Report by Nico Macdonald
The events was at City University's well-appointed Cass Business School, sister to its equally well-established department of journalism.
Setting the stage and chairing was Frank Kane, Business Editor of The Observer, who lead in to a presentation of the now notorious EPIC video, which charts the past and future of the news industry to domination of the combined Google and Amazon in 2014.
Reflecting on the presentation, Adrian Monck noted that the death of music industry, supposedly brought on by Apple's Garage Band software and Napster, had been widely foretold but hadn't come to pass.
Sue Brooks speculated that if the Googlezon vision came to pass Google may come to be as resented as Microsoft is today.
There is "an uprising from people who no longer trust our profession", observed Jon Petrovich, with his pinstripe suit identifying him as an archetypal news proprietor. "We are allowing this to happen because of the stupid things we are doing".
"Internet journalism hasn't really found its form", said Simon Hinde, "but it will during my working career".
He also noted that "people are turning to the Web as they are aware that newspaper news is not always reliable".
Petrovich commented on the US trend for people to gravitate to sources of news that reflect their opinions, and the general trend for decreasing staffing being made up for by putting on more news and information. "We are not paying close enough attention to the profession", he said.
The subject of Weblogging was never far from the surface.
In response to a question from Frank Kane about whether news gathering could be democratised, Simon Hinde contended that you "can't have news gatherers who aren't present at the event", and that such activity should be considered as comment.
Replying to a point from the audience that we shouldn't imagine people are only producers or consumers, Monck asked "who will pay for serious investigative journalism?", presenting a possible example of a reporter pursuing state-sponsored torture in a central Asian republic.
Commenting on a discussion about trusted sources and computer-edited news, Brooks argued that people are clever enough to differentiate trusted sources from Weblogs.
To an audience suggestion that it might help people unfamiliar with a country's media if journalists were accredited, she argued that "accreditation is antithetical to democracy and freedom".
Another audience member reprised two mantras of Lord Reith, first governor of the BBC, the first on the requirement for the media to educate, inform and entertain, and the second on surprising and delighting your audience.
"Broadcasting requires broad", she observed. "One size fits all won't work in the future", Petrovich countered.
Considering business models Hinde noted that people are not paying for news, but that companies such as his own do pay to source news from existing brands.
Petrovich asserted the continuing importance of new brands, though he noted that newspapers were suffered from 'cycle-sclerosis', as they don't like change.
He contended that people with limited free time would value personalisation, and argued for profile-based advertising in which users were 'incented' to purchase. "High-level customisation is worth paying for", responded Monck, "but not personalised views of the Michael Jackson trial!".
Monck concluded the debate on a pragmatic note, observing that in the 50s commentators were similarly shocked that people trusted TV over newspapers.
"It is just the medium", he said. "The issue is how the market will shake down."
Report by Nico Macdonald
