Admin notes
Speaking again
21/01/08 14:50 Permalink
Some of you - particularly in the PR field - might be
interested to know that three members of the:101, which is
the group of journalists with which I work, are
speaking at a PR Week/PR Newswire event in
February. I'm one of them.
Details are on my speaking page - it would be great to meet a few readers there if you can make it!
Details are on my speaking page - it would be great to meet a few readers there if you can make it!
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Regulating the BBC
15/03/06 10:15 Permalink
Been a little quiet over the last couple of days - a
bloke's got to work sometimes!
The big noise in the media at the moment is the regulation of the BBC. The regime is going to change as it does every few years, and as a publicly-funded body it's right that the thing should be kept under some scrutiny.
The problem is how you define public service broadcasting. My favourite programmes on the BBC currently include The Apprentice, I'll be missing watching Dick and Dom in da Bungalow with my family and of course there's the one-off plays that are coming back. (I knew I could make that list without mentioning Doctor Who somehow!) I'd be distressed if they were all taken off the air tomorrow, but I honestly can't think of a single reason they should be paid for by the public rather than the private sector. Stuff like Question Time, Planet Earth and the superb news services are different; they serve a distinct function.
My guess is that it will become increasingly difficult to justify a license-fee-funded BBC that entertains rather than informs as time goes on. The only justification at the moment seems to be that the BBC is damned good at it and the competition, for the moment, has fewer hits. For me that's good enough, and I regard the license fee as good value, but I'm acutely aware that 'Guy doesn't think it needs to change' isn't a great argument when it comes to public finances!
The big noise in the media at the moment is the regulation of the BBC. The regime is going to change as it does every few years, and as a publicly-funded body it's right that the thing should be kept under some scrutiny.
The problem is how you define public service broadcasting. My favourite programmes on the BBC currently include The Apprentice, I'll be missing watching Dick and Dom in da Bungalow with my family and of course there's the one-off plays that are coming back. (I knew I could make that list without mentioning Doctor Who somehow!) I'd be distressed if they were all taken off the air tomorrow, but I honestly can't think of a single reason they should be paid for by the public rather than the private sector. Stuff like Question Time, Planet Earth and the superb news services are different; they serve a distinct function.
My guess is that it will become increasingly difficult to justify a license-fee-funded BBC that entertains rather than informs as time goes on. The only justification at the moment seems to be that the BBC is damned good at it and the competition, for the moment, has fewer hits. For me that's good enough, and I regard the license fee as good value, but I'm acutely aware that 'Guy doesn't think it needs to change' isn't a great argument when it comes to public finances!
So what would you do with the Sunday Telegraph..?
08/03/06 08:28 Permalink
I see the Sunday Telegraph has lost its editor and
gained a new one according to a report in
today's
Guardian Unlimited
(I haven't seen the hard copy edition yet, it might
well be there too).
To me, the question facing the Telegraph, daily and Sunday incarnations, is how to capitalise on the apparent resurgence of the Conservative Party. Whatever your politics there can be no doubt that intending to vote Conservative isn't the taboo it appeared to be in 1992, when all the polls said Labour would win by a landslide and they didn't. People wouldn't admit they were actually going to vote Conservative, even when talking to anonymous pollsters, and it's taken all this time for someone to address that feeling.
And there are few really Conservative newspapers left. In the eighties everyone bar the Guardian, the Mirror and the Indie appeared to support Margaret Thatcher; although he takes a critical beating there are few people advocating any serious alternative to Tony Blair. Whether David Cameron's credibility is media hype or not remains to be established (and the results of recent byelections suggests he's not shaken the voters up as much as the papers appeared to believe) but his star appears to be rising for the moment. It's no longer embarrassing to be considering voting Tory.
Meanwhile the Telegraph and the Mail are by now the last of the Tory supporters in the mainstream press. Getting rid of the Sunday editor Sarah Sands at such short notice might seem harsh, but now of all times they can't afford to be anything other than very strong indeed. Whether changing the editor will do the trick has yet to be seen; everyone else has changed format, radically, making the Telegraph in both its incarnations look a little elderly. It should be rescuable, and it will be interesting to see whether Patience Wheatcroft is the editor to fix it on a Sunday.
To me, the question facing the Telegraph, daily and Sunday incarnations, is how to capitalise on the apparent resurgence of the Conservative Party. Whatever your politics there can be no doubt that intending to vote Conservative isn't the taboo it appeared to be in 1992, when all the polls said Labour would win by a landslide and they didn't. People wouldn't admit they were actually going to vote Conservative, even when talking to anonymous pollsters, and it's taken all this time for someone to address that feeling.
And there are few really Conservative newspapers left. In the eighties everyone bar the Guardian, the Mirror and the Indie appeared to support Margaret Thatcher; although he takes a critical beating there are few people advocating any serious alternative to Tony Blair. Whether David Cameron's credibility is media hype or not remains to be established (and the results of recent byelections suggests he's not shaken the voters up as much as the papers appeared to believe) but his star appears to be rising for the moment. It's no longer embarrassing to be considering voting Tory.
Meanwhile the Telegraph and the Mail are by now the last of the Tory supporters in the mainstream press. Getting rid of the Sunday editor Sarah Sands at such short notice might seem harsh, but now of all times they can't afford to be anything other than very strong indeed. Whether changing the editor will do the trick has yet to be seen; everyone else has changed format, radically, making the Telegraph in both its incarnations look a little elderly. It should be rescuable, and it will be interesting to see whether Patience Wheatcroft is the editor to fix it on a Sunday.
Taking a break
10/02/06 07:59 Permalink
It had to happen one day - I've told all my clients
I'm taking a break next week. All this writing about
work/life balance has finally got to me so I'm going
to claim some back.
Not that one or two people aren't determined to get work documents to me next week, they've sworn - which is the thing about being freelance, you've positioned yourself as a 'resource' and that's how they see you, they don't identify with this 'holiday' thing.
But I'll be spending some time chasing my daughter around the house and indulging in insane tickling fights instead, and ignoring e-mail and blogs until 20th Feb. (I suppose I should stop, she's 20 years old, hahahaha, not really).
See you in a week!
Not that one or two people aren't determined to get work documents to me next week, they've sworn - which is the thing about being freelance, you've positioned yourself as a 'resource' and that's how they see you, they don't identify with this 'holiday' thing.
But I'll be spending some time chasing my daughter around the house and indulging in insane tickling fights instead, and ignoring e-mail and blogs until 20th Feb. (I suppose I should stop, she's 20 years old, hahahaha, not really).
See you in a week!
Changes to the site
30/01/06 09:21 Permalink
Hi folks -
You'll notice a few changes to the blog today, depending on where you came from. Essentially I've been running a number of blogs on similar themes and it's becoming daft, there are too many. So, as of today, if you've been reading my media issues blog at guyclapperton.co.uk or guyclapperton.com, welcome aboard - they're now forwarding here. The media training blog is now not so much dead as amalgamated into this one - if you've just come from my media trainer site, hi there - your stuff will continue to be covered in here. Over the next few days I'll be putting the contents of that blog (minus the comments which I can't transport, many apologies) plus the old media issues blog in here and you'll continue to see a daily (more or less) entry.
So that's it, a more straightforward approach to blogging. Could I ask anyone who's interested in seeing it continue to click through to a few ads on the site - I get a small payment per click, and if enough people do it it'll free enough time for me to address this blog properly.
Thanks
Guy
You'll notice a few changes to the blog today, depending on where you came from. Essentially I've been running a number of blogs on similar themes and it's becoming daft, there are too many. So, as of today, if you've been reading my media issues blog at guyclapperton.co.uk or guyclapperton.com, welcome aboard - they're now forwarding here. The media training blog is now not so much dead as amalgamated into this one - if you've just come from my media trainer site, hi there - your stuff will continue to be covered in here. Over the next few days I'll be putting the contents of that blog (minus the comments which I can't transport, many apologies) plus the old media issues blog in here and you'll continue to see a daily (more or less) entry.
So that's it, a more straightforward approach to blogging. Could I ask anyone who's interested in seeing it continue to click through to a few ads on the site - I get a small payment per click, and if enough people do it it'll free enough time for me to address this blog properly.
Thanks
Guy