Play it again - the 9th Forum on Making Money

This much is clear from the 9th Journalism Leaders Forum: great minds shouldn’t be thinking alike.

The mainstream media companies who have struggled to take advantage of the expanding – and profitable - media landscape will need to do things differently. Or do more things differently. Or do more of the different things faster. Ultimately, of course, success will come to those who do the right amount of the right things at the right pace. And step one is to think differently.

Perspectives on the question, ‘If the media landscape is changing, why aren’t [many mainstream] media companies?’ from Silicon Valley (Chris Anderson), an internnational digital market intelligence company (Anton Grutzmacher), a UK media industry analyst (Peter Kirwan), a digital news entrepreneur (Rick Waghorn) were chaired by online journalism author and academic (Mike Ward). Add to that an audience of Trinity Mirror editors involved in the Journalism Leaders Programme, Digital Editors Network and others in the room and online, and you’ve got a dynamic and, potentially, very useful discussion.

If you missed it, you can see an unedited recording here.

Diary note: the 10th Forum & Digital Editors Network workshop is on 14th October & the full calendar for 2008-9 is here. Applications for the next Leaders course is also now being accepted.

Also see comments from: Oliver Luft , Andy Dickinson & Joanna Geary in text or vid.

Additional links, comments and suggestions for the next Forums – themes and panellists – would be much appreciated.

9th Forum: Why isn't more media translating into more money for mainstream media companies?

Update (17/04) : Confirmed panellists are: Chris Anderson of 'The Long Tail', Anton Grutzmacher of Hitwise, Peter Kirwan of the Press Gazette's Media Money and Rick Waghorn of www.myfootballwriter.com.


For mainstream media companies, the new Holy Grail or Holy Grail 2.0, if you will, is finding a sustainable business model for the Digital Age. While few now still argue that the old scarcity-economy model is broke, a look at the declining share prices of major media houses makes it clear that, despite much talk and even some action, still fewer are thought to have discovered how to fix it.

Last month, no less than Marc Andreessen (founder of Netscape & Ning) inaugurated “the New York Times Deathwatch” — and, as Dan Gilmore (would-be citizen journalism entrepreneur-turned-academic) in a blog post entitled, New York Times Needs to Wake Up: “the data he cites should be giving the Times-folk nightmares”.

This month, Chris Anderson (the Wired magazine editor who gave us The Long Tail ) asserted that “everything that becomes digital eventually becomes free” – and, I suspect, the data he cites will be giving everyone in the mainstream media nightmares.

Given that more people are consuming more media than ever before, a stark question arises: ‘If the media landscape is booming, why aren’t media companies?”

This is theme for the 9th Journalism Leaders Forum at Preston on 29 April 2008.

Amongst the confirmed panellists are Paul Bradshaw, author of the Online Journalism Blog and convenor of the recent Journalism Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Camp; Karen Swan, marketing head for Trinity Mirror Regionals; and Anton Grutzmacher, head of client services at the market intelligence company, Hitwise.

Joining the conversation from the audience will be participants in the Trinity Mirror Editorial Leaders Programme and Digital Editors Network members. Taking us through the issues will be Mike Ward, author of Journalism Online and head of journalism at UCLan.

To attend this free programme at 6pm on Tuesday, 29th April in Greenbank Lecture Theatre in Preston - as well as the networking reception from 5pm - please RSVP to leaders[at]ukjournalism[do]ac[dot]uk.

If you can't be there in person, there are other ways to join the discussion. You can post your questions and comments on this site, or you can view the live Webcast by logging in as a guest at: http://breeze01.uclan.ac.uk/journalismleadersforum/. Online participants will be able to post questions to panelists in a text chat room.

For more information about this and other activities of the Journalism Leaders Programme, which partners with media companies to develop leadership talent and strategic solutions for the Digital Age, visit the programme website or contact me, François Nel, by email (FPNel@uclan . ac . uk) or Skype (francoisnel).

WAN-IFRA's Martha Stone joins 13th Forum panel for paywall debate

Paywalls: build them, or break them - or look beyond them?

That's the theme for the next Journalism Leaders Forum in Preston on 29th October 2009. Kicking off that discussion will be Martha Stone, director of the World Association of Newspapers-IFRA's Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project. Charting the panel will be the director of UCLan Journalism Leaders Programme, François Nel, whose paper on innovations in online business models featured at the recent Future of Journalism conference in Cardiff.

To attend this free programme at 6pm on Thursday, 29^th October in Greenbank Lecture Theatre in Preston - as well as the networking reception from 5pm - please register at here.

If you can't be there in person, there are other ways to join the discussion. You can post your questions and comments on this site, or you can view the live Webcast by logging in as a guest. Online participants will be able to post questions to panelists in a text chat room.

Sports journalists must safeguard their freedom against large sporting bodies if objective coverage of sporting events is to be maintained

That's what was claimed at the recent 8th Journalism Leaders Forum hosted at the University of Central Lancashire on 29th January 08.

In a year which has seen large sporting organisations increasingly clash with journalists the debate was always going to be provocative and the audience was not disappointed. The panel consisted of renowned figures from the sports journalism world- Mihir Bose, BBC Sports Editor (right), Phil Townsend, Director of Communications for Manchester United Football Club, Andrew Moger, leader of the Newspaper Publishers Association’s digital rights campaign, Kadambari Murali, Sports Editor for the Hindustan Times (left) and Robert Hardie, Content Strategy Director for Associated Northcliffe Digital. The forum was chaired by Charlie Lambert, a veteran BBC North West sports presenter and commentator, who now runs the highly-regarded sports journalism programme at UCLan.

The opposing views put forward by Mihir Bose and Phil Townsend were particularly lively and served to illustrate the polarization of views between large, powerful sports organisations and journalists.

Andrew Moger said "As journalists we are letting ourselves down, we are letting a great industry down if we don't man the barricades against restrictive measures. We have been sleeping on this issue far too long. That includes publishers, owners and sports editors. We have tried to maintain relationships in the face of competition and control and we need to be much more robust on our own account."

If you missed the forum you can view the online recording at http://breeze01.uclan.ac.uk/p88174755/

Join the live Forum Webcast tonight

The 8th Journalism Leaders forum, entitled “Spoiled Sports: Will the digital media finish off sports reporting as a credible form of journalism?” will take place at 6pm GMT on 29th January with an all-star panel chaired by Charlie Lambert.

Join us at http://breeze01.uclan.ac.uk/journalismleadersforum and log in as a guest. Look forward to seeing you there.

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.