8th Forum asks to explore the impact of digital on sports journalism

[An unedited recording of this Forum & Webinar is now available here.]

The 8th Journalism Leaders Forum on 29 January will bring top sports media managers and journalists from around the globe together to discuss the impact of new technologies on sports reporting today.

Entitled, “Spoiled Sports: Will the digital media finish off sports reporting as a credible form of journalism?”, the panel will be chaired by Charlie Lambert (right) a veteran BBC North West sports presenter and commentator who now runs the highly-regarded sports journalism programme at UCLan. Says Charlie:

"Journalists who cover top-level sport are facing a real challenge. Teams and organisations are so powerful and so wealthy that they want to control everything that is said or written about them.

"And while there has always been that element of friction between the reporter and the reported, sports organisations now have their own media platforms from which to reach their public without involving the traditional journalist at all. How sports journalists deal with this phenomenon is a key issue which will impact on the credibility of their profession.

Never have so many people around the globe wanted to watch, listen and read about sport. Yet never has it been so difficult for sports journalists to get to the heart of the story. "

Panelists include:

Mihir Bose, BBC Sports Editor
Mihir Bose is the recently appointed Sports Editor for the BBC who worked for the Sunday Times for 20 years before moving to the Daily Telegraph to specialise in investigative sports reporting. He has also presented on radio and television, including BBC Radio 4's Financial World Tonight, South Asia Report on BBC World Service and What the Papers Say for Channel 4. A respected journalist in India and the UK he has won several awards for his newspaper writing including Business Columnist of the Year, Sports Reporter of the Year and Sports Story of the Year. A respected author he has written 22 books on a range of subjects, including A History of Indian Cricket and Manchester Disunited.

Phil Townsend, Director of Communications for Manchester United Phil has been Director of Communications at Man Utd since 2004. Since that time, the Club has been taken over in controversial circumstances, de-listed from the Stock Exchange and endured negative headlines as it lost its shirt sponsor and team captain within weeks of failing to qualify from the Group Stages of the Champions League for the first time in 11 years. In the same period, the Club has won all three domestic honours, appeared in two unsuccessful FA Cup Finals and lost to the eventual winners of the UEFA Champions League in last year’s semi final. Prior to working at Old Trafford, Phil was the Press Secretary to the Minister for Sport for five years, serving three Sports Ministers (the late Tony Banks, Kate Hoey and Richard Caborn) and two Secretaries of State (Chris Smith and Tessa Jowell).


Kadambari Murali, Sports Editor for the Hindustan Times in New Delhi
Kadambari Murali is Sports Editor for the Hindustan Times and is one of the most respected journalists in her field. She has won several awards including best news story and cricket writer at the Indian Sports Journalism Awards for excellence in sports writing.

Robert Hardie, Content Strategy Director for Northcliffe Media
After a reporting career that took in both the regional and national press, Robert became Chief Sub Editor at the Derby Telegraph in 1997 and was appointed Head of Electronic Publishing at the title in 1998.

As Northcliffe Media's digital strategy developed he assumed Content responsibility for of all the group's operations in the Midlands. He then assumed Content control for the whole company in 2002. When Associated Northcliffe Digital was formed in 2006 he was appointed Managing Editor and moved to take up the same role in Northcliffe in October 2007. He was recently appointed Content Strategy Director with the company.

Andrew Moger, an independent consultant specialising in news media rights
Andy Moger is an independent consultant specialising in news media rights and events. He has had many years experience working as a reporter, news editor, picture editor and newspaper executive in the highly competitive London media environment. This has put him at the forefront of numerous and recent negotiations between the media, governing bodies and ‘rights holders’ in many countries. He is also enthusiastic about sport participation (including his own) and the role of sport in society.

The event, which is free and open to the public, starts at 5:15pm with a networking reception in the foyer of Greenbank Building and the 90-minute panel discussion kicks off at 6pm . To attend, please RSVP to DJWilliams1@uclan.ac.uk . If you can't be there in person, you can view the live Webcast online and join others in the chat room [Log in as a guest] .

The Journalism Leaders Forum is presented by the Journalism Leaders Programme, which will also be hosting an afternoon of workshops and discussions for the Digital Editors Network. For details about that event, please visit the DEN blog or link with the group on Facebook, where you'll also find the 'Journalism at Preston since 1962' group for alumni of England's oldest journalism course.

Queries about custom training, services and management development programs for your news organization should be directed to the Director of the Journalism Leaders Programme François Nel at F P Nel @ uclan . ac . uk .

8th Journalism Leaders Forum to tackle the influence of digital technologies on sports reporting

There’s been quite a bit of discussion about the opportunities that digital technologies afford traditional media companies to use more platforms to create more interaction with more users around more nuanced stories and, even sometimes, to make more money.

At the start of another Olympic year, the 8th Journalism Leaders Forum on Tuesday, 29th January 2008, will consider if there's a darker side to the digital proposition by taking a closer look at developments in the world of sports.

Chairing the discussion will be Charlie Lambert (right), a veteran BBC North West sports presenter and commentator, who now runs the highly-regarded sports journalism programme at UCLan. Charlie outlines the premise for the panel discussion, which will be Webcast live, as follows:

The digital explosion has rent asunder the traditional relationship between sports journalists and the organisations they cover.

Already with many cards stacked in their favour, powerful bodies like the Football Association and individual clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool now have their own direct route to the public.

The old argument from newspaper and broadcast companies that “the clubs need the oxygen of publicity” no longer holds water. Clubs have their own media outlets including TV and radio stations and increasingly-sophisticated websites. They believe they can reach out to their customers without the need for interfering, bolshy journalists.

Clubs are increasingly using their websites as the outlet for breaking news, instead of picking up the phone to the local hack. Radio stations who access news from the sites frequently credit ‘the club website’ as their source, thus increasing the credibility of the club’s own media operation.

Does this mean that sports journalism as an independent conduit of information is on the way out?

The Forum, which coincides with the Winter residential seminar of the Journalism Leaders Programme, also helps mark 45 years of journalism at Preston, and is open to all - practitioners, academics, would-be journalists and others who are interested in the challenges of journalism in the Digital Age.

The event starts at 5:15pm with a networking reception in the foyer of Greenbank Building and the 90-minute panel discussion kicks off at 6pm . To attend, please RSVP to leaders @ ukjournalism . org . There is no charge.

If you can't be there in person, you can view the live Webcast online and join othes in the chat room [Log in as a guest] .

NOTE: Earlier the same day, we'll also be hosting an afternoon of workshops and discussions for the Digital Editors Network. For details about that event, please visit the DEN blog or link with the group on Facebook, where you'll also find the 'Journalism at Preston since 1962' group for alumni of England's oldest journalism course.

Revisiting "Local Turf Wars" Forum

With a panel comprising Jay Rosen of Press Think, Neil Benson of Trinity Mirror Regionals, Darren Thwaites of the award-winning Evening Gazette in Teesside, UCLan alumnus Andy Mitten of United We Stand, and Emma Hemmingway of Into the Newsroom, it was always going to be a lively - and insightful - discussion. The 7th Journalism Leaders Forum, chaired by Mike Ward, head of journalism at UCLan and author of Online Journalism, was exactly that.

If you missed the event or want to revist the discussion, you will find a recording HERE.

Also, mark your calendar. The 8th Forum is scheduled on 29 January 2008, to coincide with the winter residential seminar of the Journalism Leaders Programme . Earlier that day, we'll also be hosting an afternoon of workshops and discussions for the Digital Editors Network.

Of course, if you have any comments or suggestions, we'd certainly like to hear from you.

Crowdsource journalism advocate Jay Rosen joins panel on 'Local Turf Wars'

"A highly satisfying failure" is how Wired's Jeff Howe described Jay Rosen & Co's first pro-amateur, open source journalism project, Assignment Zero. The verdict: doing open source journalism is harder than you might think.

But Rosen & Co aren't giving up. They've teamed up with the Huffington Post and launched, Off theBus - "[US Presidential] campaign coverage by people who aren't in the club."

Rosen, an associate professor of journalism at New York University and the author of Press Think, will join in the 7th Journalism Leaders Forum discussion on 16 October entitled, Local Turf Wars: notes from the digital news frontline.

Other confirmed panellists include Neil Benson, editorial director of Trinity Mirror Regionals, and Emma Hemmingway, author of Into the Newsroom: exploring the digital production of regional television news. Mike Ward, head of the Department of Journalism at UCLan and author of Journalism Online, will chair the forum.

The event is of the first of a series of activities planned to mark 45 years of journalism education at Preston, the oldest programme of its type in England.

The open event, which is the first of three planned for 2007-8, starts at 5:15pm with a networking reception in the foyer of Greenbank Building. The 90-minute panel discussion begins at 6pm.

Please RSVP to: leaders[at]ukjournalsm[dot] org. Afterwards, you're invited to link up for a drink at the journalism department's traditional local, the Lamb & Packet . For those who can't make it person, the Forum will again be webcast live too [Log in as a Guest; on the right of the screen].

Trinity Mirror's Neil Benson examines local news at 7th Forum

The folks at the UK's largest newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror have been pretty upbeat lately.

Early in August , the interim financial results for 2007 showed that profits were up, despite below-forecast income from the titles they shed. A few days later, on the back of the announcement of a spate of redesigns and relaunches , regional editorial director Neil Benson hinted that things had gone so well with the rollout of their hyperlocal news project at the Teesside Gazette (also the Press Gazette Regional News Website of Year 2007) that more reverse publishing (online-to-print) products may be in the offing.

Benson is amongst the panelists considering the global impact of the local news business at the 7th Journalism Leaders Forum on 16 October. The event is of the first of a series of activities planned to mark 45 years of journalism education at Preston, the oldest programme of its type in England.

The open event, which is the first of three planned for 2007-8, starts at 5:15pm with a networking reception in the foyer of Greenbank Building. The 90-minute Forum begins at 6pm. Please RSVP to: leaders[at]ukjournalsm[dot] org.

Afterwards, you're invited to link up for a drink at the journalism department's traditional local, the Lamb & Packet . For those who can't make it person, the Forum will again be webcast live too.

Learning from digital media entrepreneurs

OK, I admit it. Perhaps the title of the 6th Journalism Leaders Forum in Preston - 'Editor as Entrepreneur: Lessons from the Digital Front' - was a bit misleading: none of the panelists nor the chair was strictly an "Editor". In fact, at the time, only one of them, Robin Hamman, was actually employed by a maintream media house (he's the BBC's Blog Network Coordinator and author of his own highly-rated blog.). And the other? Eamonn Carey had left traditional media operations to launch his own mobile start-up , Random Thoughts Media , while Nick Jaspan of How-Do has been a media entrepreneur all along.

Which raises a key question for traditional media houses: What can we do to retain talent in an age when the ease of access to technology and bandwidth means that today's star employee can (more easily?) be tomorrow's competitor?

If you missed the excellent case studies and provocative discussion chaired by the journalist-turned-tech whiz, Bob Eggington, you can watch an unedited version of the live Webcast here.

Reminder: the next Journalism Leaders Forum has been scheduled for Tuesday, 16 October 2007. On the occassion of the 45th anniversary of journalism education at Preston, we'll be looking at the opportunities digital technologies give local media to reach global audiences - and to make a global impact.

Hope you will join the conversation.

Serial media entrepreneur Nick Jaspan to join Forum panel on May 15th

Sure Nick Jaspan got his fingers (and probably his wallet) burned last year by opening and closing the independent weekly North West Enquirer. But it'll take more than that to stop a serial entrepreneur like Jaspan.

Just this month the co-founder of Newsco Media, which he sold, and j4b (Just for Business), of which he is a non-executive director, launched his latest venture, 'How-Do', a media industry news portal for the North West of England.

On May 15th, this survivor of the (first?) dotcom bust will join the 6th Journalism Leaders Forum panel entitled, 'Editor as Entrepreneur: Lessons from the Digital Front'. Other panellists include Eamonn Carey of the mobile media start-up, Random Thoughts Media, and Robin Hamman, co-ordinator of the BBC's Blogging Network. Bob Eggington, the journalism-turned-tech whiz whose projects have included establishing BBC News Online and TV Genius, will chair the discussion.

The event, which forms part of the Winter residential week programme for participants in the Department of Journalism's Journalism Leaders Programme, is open to all - practitioners, academics, would-be journalists and others who are interested in the challenges of leading journalism in a digital age.

To attend this open programme at 6pm on Tuesday, May 15th, in Greenbank Lecture Theatre in Preston - as well as the network reception from 5:15pm - please RSVP to leaders@ukjournalism.org. There is no charge. If you can't be there in person, you can view the live Webcast online and join othes in the chat room [Log in as a guest] .

NOTE: Applications are currently being accepted for the Spring seminars, which will include sessions by Eggington and Hamman, as well as other accomplished practitioners and academics: Managing Multimedia Projects: Harnessing the Potential fo the Digital Age. Please see the Journalism Leaders Programme website or email the director François Nel for more information.